Fig Newtons?

I really wanted to try fig newtons, so I made them on Sunday. Quite a while ago, I bought a jar of fig preserves with this intention. I'm trying to use up things in the pantry instead of buying more food. So this was the time!

I had seen a recipe for fig newtons at Chickens in the Road a year ago. I checked Joy of Cooking, but it didn't have anything similar, so I went with CitR. Her recipe makes a raisin filling, which is said to be delicious, but I used the fig preserves of course. You can also use any preserves, she says. But we found the filling overly sweet, especially since the cookie is so sugary. We will try again, however, as Nutmeg and I really like them. Eric didn't care for the sweetness of the filling and won't have more.

I made a half recipe, and ended up with 5 dozen cookies, made as Suzanne did as bars. As usual, I cut mine thinner than called for. With a bit of leftover dough, we tried the original recipe of making folded over squares. While Nutmeg got a kick out of using a fork to press the edges, they were far more work than the bars. We won't do that again. I think both kinds spread about double in the oven.

Mine weren't at all crumbly and made a great snack on a hike in Black Brook Preserve yesterday. We tried both kinds--both worked well. I was afraid the filling would ooze, but it didn't. Might be more of a problem with other preserves; the fig preserves were pretty thick.

And I don't think they taste anything like fig newtons. The cookie is harder and thinner (might have been my rolling and baking), and preserves aren't as thick (they spread more than I'd imagined so I don't think I could make them thicker), and none of it tasted the same. But that's okay because we really like them anyway! Should just called them fig bars.

Ginger ::Snap!:: Cookies

I love long weekends! Gives me time to do some baking (and some reading) that I usually don't get to without a lot of planning on regular weekends. On Saturday, I asked Maggie if she'd rather make ginger cookies or fig newtons, which she'd bring as dessert at school*. She's never had either one. She chose ginger cookies. (*Maggie delighted in bringing a homemade dessert on Thursday, telling me at least twice and Eric once how she told her lunch buddies about it. I now have a reputation to live up to!)

Years ago (okay, no more than 3 I guess), my sister-in-law Ann Marie gave us some fabulous ginger snap cookies that were thick, soft, and filled with candied ginger. It's the first time I ever liked candied ginger. We never found the recipe back, but I bought some ginger last winter with the intent of making some ginger cookies. So, about 8 months later, I finally did. I found a recipe for Ginger Spice Cookies at Epicurious. My changes are using butter instead of shortening, using a mix of dark molasses (its all I ever get) and honey (because only had a little molasses left and didn't realize I had some in the pantry), and finely chopping the ginger. I made them about 1" diameter, ending up with about 45 cookies. We also changed the name, as I had great fun getting Nutmeg to snap instead of saying the word. So they are Ginger ::snap!:: Cookies.

Nutmeg helped make these, including mixing the dough and rolling them in sugar. It's really nice to have a helped when cookies are rolled in sugar--my hands stayed in the dough and hers in the sugar.

We all enjoy them! Nutmeg says they are the bestest cookie she has ever eaten, hence the photo of her in the middle of saying so. I'm a little surprised as they are very gingery, and she doesn't usually like spicy things. I think I should take them along on the next rollercoaster or boat ride. They might help my motion sickness. (Ginger was the only thing Myth Busters found to actually setting motion sickness.)

Choco-Coco-Pineapple cookies

Grandma Frost's Chocolate Chip Cookies are rapidly becoming my go-to recipe! I like the ones with coconut so much that I made another batch early this week. In half, I chopped up dried pineapple, which was a lovely touch. Pineapple is a rare item in this house, but last January I found some deeply discounted with Christmas baking products and snatched them up. It was a great addition, but makes the name rather long. Have to change it to something tropical.

I had a problem baking these. I had originally intended to make them the day before and set out butter to soften. But I forgot and it got hot so I didn't want to. But then I had the idea to mix up the batter that night so that I could make them while it was still cool in the morning.

That part went just fine. But it took a lot longer to bake coming straight from the fridge. And each batch took a little less time than the one before. So every one of them came out a little overdone. None burned, thankfully, but it was still annoying to have to watch them so carefully. The first sheet took at least 4 extra minutes, maybe 6!

Choco-Coco cookies and using fresh coconut

Nutmeg and I made another batch of Grandma's Frost's chocolate chip cookies this weekend. A few weeks ago, Nutmeg said she wanted to try a real coconut. They picked one up at the store right away, but we didn't get around to cracking it open. Earlier this week, we finally did and it was rotten. We tried one of those easy to crack ones--I think they cut all the way through then glue it back together. We should have opened it immediately. So last weekend, Nutmeg and I got one and cracked it open on Friday.

We grated a cup and replaced the nuts called for in the recipe. I think they are FABULOUS with coconut. Eric thinks they are okay but nothing special. Nutmeg likes them, too. I almost threw in some dried pineapple, but these were mostly to send along to the beach house and I thought just coconut might be weird for some people. Next time!

A few coconut tips

• Don't let a 5 year old grate. She sliced her thumb knuckle quite quickly. :(
• Eric started with a drill top open a hole to drain the coconut water. He used a very large bit, but that meant we only needed one hole. Neither Nutmeg nor I liked the coconut water.
• Then he cracked it open with a chisel and hammer. Did not see that tip anywhere online. Much easier than with a hammer alone and didn't need a towel to keep the bits from flying around.
• Place the pieces attached to hull on a cookie sheet and put in a 350 oven for 15 minutes. They will be easier to pry off the hull now. I let them cool for about 5 minutes; they were still hot so I had to hold the shell with a towel while I pried the coconut meat off. I used a small paring knife to get between the meat and the shell.
• Then I used a vegetable peeler to get the brown inner shell (?) off. It was so easy with a peeler. Except my hands cramped so it took me a few hours off and on (maybe 30 minutes hands on, if that).
• I used the smallest holes on my box grater. Never used these before but they are the perfect size for coconut.
• I considered toasting the coconut, but Nutmeg said to put it in raw. I wasn't sure that it would matter in cookies anyway.

I also used the coconut in 7 layer bars and hope to make granola soon with the rest of it.  I might make another batch of Choco-Coco cookies, too; I sent all but 6 (and the two or three I had right away) along to the beach house.

I wish we lived near coconut trees. I really enjoyed having fresh coconut. So much nicer than the dried stuff from bags in the store. :(

Oh, and for some reason 15 minutes at 350 was a wee bit too long this time. Nearly burned the cookies. Perhaps it was the pizza stone--I put the it on the bottom of the oven this time, as it had preheated and I had nowhere to put it in the kitchen. Sometimes I leave it on the rack. I'll have to keep note of how it affects things.

PB choc chip cookies made as bars

Maggie also wanted to make M&M cookies last weekend. I only had mint M&Ms which I didn't really want to waste in cookies, so I asked her if she'd like to make choc chip cookies with the special caramel/choc swirl chips. She happily agreed. Then we decided to put in peanut butter, too. Again, it was her choice between that and oatmeal.

We used Grandma Frost's Recipe again, which includes the possibility of an optional 1 cup of peanut butter. We also put in chopped walnuts. Maggie chopped them in my awesome nut chopper--it's the one my Mom had when I was a kid. Not having anything with which to chop nuts as an adult, I dreamed of finding a chopper like her's at a garage sale. Never did. Then it occurred to me that she probably never used it anymore, between having a food processor and arthritis in her hands. So a couple years ago, I asked. And voila! I now have the nut chopper. It holds great memories because I usually chopped the nuts for Mom (and for myself I guess), and now Maggie is doing it "Just like Mom did when she was a little girl like me!" I was surprised that it took her the entire mixing time to chop the nuts. Then later, when we were telling Eric about making them, she added in that she had eaten a lot of nuts and I asked if that's why it had taken so long. She laughed and said yes.

Rather than making 5 sheets of cookies and having to be in the kitchen with the oven on for more than an hour, we made bars. I put a Silpat in my jelly roll pan (slightly larger cookie sheet); it doesn't quite cover then entire pan, but the dough doesn't go under and everything turns out just fine. I intentionally cut them small--portion sizes are out of control around here and I was shooting for the original sized cookie. The recipe makes 5 dozen if you make them the right size. I think I got 6 dozen! I've found that I will want to eat 2-4 cookies no matter what size they are. So making them smaller...I eat less but am nearly as satisfied.

They are lovely. Two problems--the caramel swirl chips don't add much flavor. I though the PB overwhelmed them, but Eric said they didn't taste very caramely on their own, either. Second, although they looked great in the pan, in the bag their dryness became evident as at least a cookie's worth of crumbs was left from about 1/3 of the cookies. The tasted fine, but very crumby. I can't wait to try these with regular choc chips since I love pb and chocolate.

Crustie Cookies

This is a favorite from childhood. Via my Mom, maybe she learned from her Mom or her aunt who lived with the family. When I was kid, she'd let us make the crustie cookies and I would labor over making cool shapes and designs. As an adult, I'm more likely to just put them out as they are.

Crustie Cookies
leftover pie crust pieces from making a pie
water
cinnamon sugar

1. If pieces are really small, mash together and re-roll.
2. Cut pieces into whatever sizes and shapes you want. Good idea to keep under 2" wide.
3. Put on cookie sheet. Prick with a fork. Brush a little water on (with fingers or a pastry brush). Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
4. Bake with pie (or 350) for about 10-15 minutes, depending on size and amount. Watch carefully as they are small and thin so can burn easily.

Grandma Frost's Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'd be willing to bet this recipe came from a cookbook, but I don't care and I'm not going to try to find out since it's so much cooler to use my Grandma's recipe than a cookbook's. I don't recall using hot water in any other choc chip cookies I've made, so maybe not. It's my Grandma Frost's recipe, via my Mom.

Hint: Put butter out long in advance; the softer it is (but not melted) the easier it is to cream. By the way, this is a good time to note that I cream by hand. In fact, I do almost all my mixing by hand. We do not own a mixer, although we do have a hand mixer used about once a year (my husband Eric uses it sometimes), nor a food processor (though we have a mini electric chopper again used about once a year), nor a blender (except an immersion blender used way more than once a year for mixing ice cream and pesto). I've mixed everything by hand since I was a teenager and realized I could get a little bit of exercise, save electricity, and not spend all that much more time just using a bowl and a spoon.

We made them with raspberry chocolate chips my Mom (daughter of Grandma Frost) gave Maggie (my 5.5 year old daughter, who made these with me) last Christmas or so. So maybe I should call these 4 generation cookies? By the way, my Mom is the oldest daughter, I'm the oldest granddaughter, and Maggie is the oldest great-granddaughter. I think that is so cool!

Grandma Frost's Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4 c brown sugar
3/4 c white sugar
3/4 c margarine but I always use butter
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp hot water
1 c chopped nuts (optional)
1 tsp vanilla
2 c or 12 oz chocolate chips or 4 sq sweet chocolate chipped the size of peas.
Variation: add 1 c peanut butter

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Mix in eggs.
3. Add in flour and baking soda. Grandma probably sifted these, but I usually don't bother. I just make sure the small dry ingredients aren't dumped in a lump.
4. Stir in water and vanilla.
5. Stir in nuts and chocolate.
6. Drop by teaspoons or tablespoons, or make giant cookies on greased sheet or Silpat.

350, ~15 minutes (the recipe has no time listed and this is the first time I wrote down the time), 3-5 dozen depending on how big you make them.

The recipe card has only one step listed: "Last of all, add [chocolate amounts]." But cookies follow a pretty typical set of instructions, which I wrote above.

Morning Cookies

I like to bake; I find it relaxing and stress-relieving. When I wake up on weekends, I'm eager to get out of bed to start in on the baking. I plan what I'll be making a couple days in advance, although my plans continue up to the point I begin, and sometimes change even then. Like this morning, I intended to bake a loaf of bread in between the roasted bananas and the banana mini pies. But then I realized that timing everything would be stressful and I have some bread, so it can wait a day.

But back to last weekend and the morning cookies. I found this recipe two years ago when Eric and I were both working on losing weight. It's been a family favorite ever since. We both love fruit/veggie breads for breakfast, but they are rather high calorie without a lot of good stuff (other than the fruit/veggies and the whole wheat flour I add in). These have more of the good stuff (I think. I'm not a nutritionist) and are more filling. I do not remember where I got the original, and I modified it anyway. They are good any time of day.

Made with pumpkin and I had to get neufchatel at the store the next day, and they were so yummy we finished them off before I made the sandwiches. See, I can't even get the first recipe I post perfect!

Morning Cookies
1/4 c butter
1/2 c brown sugar
1 egg or egg white
3/4 c applesauce (I use my homemade chunky with the peels)
1/2-1 c pumpkin or zucchini (freshly grated, canned, cooked, or rehydrated) OPTIONAL
3/4 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c rolled oats (inc to at least 1 c if using optional veg)
1/3 c wheat germ or bran
1/4 c powdered milk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c raisins
1/4 c chopped walnuts OPTIONAL
1/2 peanut butter or neufchatel cream cheese

1. Cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg, applesauce, and veg.
2. Add in dry. Mix till just combined. Add more oats if too wet.
3. Stir in raisins and nuts.
4. Drop by rounded tablespoons on greased cookie sheet or Silpat. Make 16-20. Spread dough to about 2" diam. They do not spread at all.
5. Bake 375 10-12 minutes or till set (~15 with veg). Mate similar size/shape cookies.
6. Cool. Spread ~1Tbs PB or CC on 8 cookies. Top with matching cookie.
7. Chill or freeze.

W/o optional veg and 16 cookies: 287 cal each sandwich w/ nuefchatel; 343 w/ PB. 10.7 g protein w/ PB.