Day 10: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts, Sunflower Seeds and Dried Cherries

On our final day of Chocolate Chip Cookie tasting I wanted to bake a cookie with some sort of dried fruit. I had some leftover dried cherries from the Oatmeal Almond Butter Cookies I baked on day four so I decided to use them. I also found a package of salt free sunflower seeds and loved the idea of using them in the cookie to add a different texture.

I used the extra basic cookie dough from the Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts I made yesterday and mixed in the cherries and sunflower seeds.

Bake these cookies for 9-12 minutes at 375 degrees.

Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

Making four different types of Chocolate Chip Cookies was a lot harder then I thought. To take the same basic dough and change it into a totally different cookie was a challenge in itself. To the boys credit, they never once complained about having another Chocolate Chip Cookie. They were challenged to taste the subtle differences, and surprised to find out how one substitution could change the flavor or the cookie. So which Chocolate Chip Cookie reigned supreme????

The Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

Noah: "I loved the little almond pieces...good job Ian!"

Dane: "It tastes different then the normal chocolate chip cookies!"

Ian: "I made them, they are my favorite!"

How the cookies were rated by taste tester:

I gave each place a point value (1=4pts, 2=3pts, 3=2pts, 4=1pts) to decide winner.

The cookie with the most points won.

Noah

1. Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

2. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts

3. Chocolate Chip Cookies

4. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts, Sunflower Seeds and Dried Cherries 

Dane

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts

2. Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

3. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts, Sunflower Seeds and Dried Cherries

4. Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ian

1. Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

2. Chocolate Chip Cookies

3. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts

4. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts, Sunflower Seeds and Dried Cherries

Total Points

1. Almond Chocolate Chip Cookie.................................................................11 points

2. Chocolate Chip with Walnuts........................................................................9 points

3. Chocolate Chip Cookies..............................................................................6 points

4. Chocolate Chip Cookie with Walnut, Sunflower Seeds and Cherries........4 points***

***For the unofficial record the Chocolate Chip Cookie with Walnuts, Sunflower Seeds and Cherries was an overwhelming favorite among adults***



Day 9: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts

There were two things we could always count on when we walked into our Grandma and Grandpa Caponi's house. First, my grandma would give us a hug and immediately ask: "Are you wearing an undershirt?" Before we could answer, she was tugging on our shirt collars to check.

The second was that Grandma always had homemade cookies (among other things) available for us. And just to be clear, that had to be a HUGE task. My dad is one of six children, all were married and there were 18 of us grandchildren. Today, my cousins and I still can't imagine how crazy family gatherings must have been with all of us running around.
Grandma would sit and watch you enjoy her cookies with the biggest smile on her face. While you had your mouth full, she would start telling you stories about how she would pack cookies in her kids lunches and then would have to send more in the next day because their friends were raving about how delicious they were.

As the years went by we grew up, got married ourselves and starting having our own children. Through it all Grandma was still baking and telling her now great grandchildren the same stories about her cookies. It didn't take my boys long to learn that when they walked into Grandma and Grandpa Caponi's house the first thing Grandma would ask was: "Do you want a cookie?"

I would call my grandma quite often while I was beginning to bake. I would ask her question after question. "How do you get your cookies so perfectly round?" "What flour do you use?" "Why won't my cookies rise like yours?" "Why do you use the mini chocolate chips?"

With each question, she gave me a very simple answer. I would go back, make adjustments and the cookie would be better. I soon realized that as much as we enjoyed talking about her wonderful cookies there was NO WAY she was going to give me all of her secrets all at once.

It wasn't until Christmas 2004 that she finally had a cookie I made and couldn't tell if it was hers or mine....Success!!!

It has been 2 years since my Grandma Caponi passed away. I am so happy that my children got to know her and will always be thankful for what she taught me.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts

2 1/4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup of butter

3/4 cup of sugar

3/4 cup of packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 large eggs (Grandma C tip...If you use smaller eggs, add an additional egg yoke)

1 cup of mini chocolate chips

1 cup of walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Sift dry ingredients together set aside.

Mix butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla together.

Add eggs one at a time. Mix well.

Slowly add dry ingredients.

Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Place rounded teaspoon of dough on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

A great time saving tip is to make extra base dough to use for different cookies. Label and refrigerate the extra dough. When you are ready to bake bring the dough to room temperature and then stir in additional ingredients.

One more day until the Chocolate Chip Cookie winner is revealed! 



Day 6: Double Chocolate Mint Cookies

It is that time of year again! Every adorable little girl you know will be asking you to buy those irresistible boxes of goodness. Otherwise known as girl scout cookies.

We were at my aunt and uncle's house last week and my cousin's adorable daughter was selling cookies for the first time.
She started out a little shy, but boy did she open up once she realized that not one of us could say no to her beautiful little face. By the end of the night she was so excited. She was holding the order form shouting: "Daddy, Daddy I earned my patch!!!"

Girl scout cookies pretty much sell themselves. One of our favorites are the thin mints (especially when they are frozen, yummm!).

The idea of the delicious combination of mint and chocolate inspired this cookie of the day. I found this recipe on a great blog by Jennifer Hill a Vancouver dietitian and a seeming cool chick, foodess.com.

Double Chocolate Mint Cookies

(adapted from gourmet magazine found on foodess.com)

1 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp peppermint extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until well blended.
Beat in eggs and peppermint extract.
Gradually add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt and beat until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
Form dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets.
Flatten balls slightly.
Bake cookies until edges begin to firm but center still appears soft, about 9 minutes.
Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes.
Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

OOPS!!! Well...this is a challenge and with this recipe I made a couple of BIG mistakes. The cookies look good, but in my opinion tasted like you were biting into an Altoids!

I had to work in the morning (I work part time at a friend's church for a mom's day out program) and we had a teacher meeting after the kids went home. I usually will be back home after work by 12:30pm. Today, I didn't walk into the door until almost 2:00pm. I immediately started in on the day's batch before I had to leave to pick Noah up from middle school at 2:45pm.

Being crunched for time I got careless. I misread the recipe and added 2 TABLESPOONS of mint extract to the dough, then I forgot to add the chocolate chips! I decided to add the chocolate chips to the top and to bake the cookies with the...let's just say extra...amount of mint flavor.

Expecting the worse as the kids tried their daily cookie, I was surprised with their reactions.

Noah: "Love 'em. Spectacular. Fantastic."

 Ian: "Good, VERY good. I love it!"

Dane: "Minty!"

If you haven't noticed by now, Dane is a little camera shy.

 Eventually I may get a picture of him eating a cookie (I'm not making any promises).



Day 5: Maple Syrup Cookies

We at the Z household are still nursing our holiday hangover. We had such a great end to 2011. We attended and had parties, spent time with family and friends, went to see Wicked at the Detroit Opera House and even told the boys we will be taking a family trip to Disney in February.

One of my favorite traditions is sitting with the boys and watching Christmas movies. Our top pick for the past couple years has been the hilarious movie, Elf. The boys cannot get enough of Buddy the Elf. They even convinced their grandmother to let them adorn their pasta with syrup!! Seriously, they did.

As the boys were leaving for school I asked them for some cookie suggestions.

Dane: "I know! A maple syrup cookie, just like Buddy the Elf. But, you can leave out the spaghetti."

I found a few different maple cookie recipes on allrecipe.com and adapted this one from Maple Cookies by Craig Gund.

Buddy's Maple Syrup Cookie

(adapted from Maple Cookies on allrecipe.com)

1/2 C Butter Softened

1/2 C Packed Dark Brown Sugar

1 egg YOKE ONLY

1/2 C Maple Syrup

1/2 tsp Vanilla

2 C Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 and 1/2 tsp of Sugar sprinkled with Nutmeg for Decoration

        

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and dark brown sugar together.

Add in egg yoke, maple syrup, and vanilla. Mix well. 

Sift together flour, salt and baking soda.

 

Add sifted dry ingredients to the dough and mix.

Make a teaspoon sized ball and drop it into the decorative sugar (1/4 c sugar sprinkled with nutmeg)

Shake bowl to cover the cookie dough.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 9-12 minutes.

Cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minute, transfer to a wire rack to complete cooling.

Ian: "Awesome."
Noah: "They taste like animal crackers."
Dane: "Buddy the Elf would love these!!"

Day 4: Oatmeal Almond Butter Cookies with Dried Cherries

A few months ago Noah and Dane saw something on the news that upset them. In today's world that could be anything. It seems like our local news is constantly reporting negative news like murders, kidnappings and robberies. My first thought when they approached me was how I was going to spin what ever they saw into something appropriate for them know.

Boy, was I shocked to find out what they were really upset about.

Noah: "Mom, did you know that Sesame Street is getting rid of Cookie Monster and replacing him with Veggie Monster???!!!"

That is when I saw Noah step onto the soap box for the first time. He went on for a good 30 minutes about how it shouldn't be Sesame Street's job to keep kids healthy. It is up to parents to teach their kids about nutrition. He also went on about how he would watch Cookie Monster every day when he was a kid (he is 11 years old) and he is not over weight. He even wrote an email expressing his concern and showing support for his favorite blue guy. 

We have since found out that Cookie was not replaced.  Now he eats more then just cookies. Cookie's diet includes fresh fruit, veggies and even oatmeal cookies which inspired me to try the recipe below.

Since the second batch of Flourless Natural Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Cookies were a distant memory, I decided to attempt another flourless recipe. I found this one on a great blog called Carrots-n-Cake. She used peanut butter, but I decided to change it up and use almond butter.

Flourless Oatmeal Almond Butter Cookies with  Dried Cherries

(adapted from Flourless Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies on Carrots-n-Cake)

1 1/4 C  Rolled Oats

1/4 C Sugar

1/4 C Almond Butter

1/2tsp Baking Powder

1 Egg Slightly Beaten

2 Tbs Butter Softened

1/4 cup of Dried Cherries

Preheat over to 350 degrees

Mix all the ingredients together except dried cherries

Place rounded teaspoons of dough on cookie sheet
Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges of the cookies are golden brown
Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Plate and Enjoy!!!

Noah: "Not bad!"

Dane: "Wow, the cherries are really good in this cookie."

Ian: "These are not my favorite. Where is the chocolate?"

Adam: "These are fantastic!"

These cookies are not very sweet and by adding the dried cherries you will get great flavor.

Enjoy and long live Cookie Monster!!



Day 3: Bacon Toffee Cookies

I can't remember the exact moment my family's love affair with bacon began. However,  I can tell you that today it has turned into a full on obsession!!! Bacon has found it's way into every aspect of our life. It isn't just for breakfast and BLTs anymore.

Noah borrowed a costume from a friend and became bacon for Halloween...

 ... also, we can no longer have hamburgers or meatloaf made from only ground beef. Now, my husband insists on making everything 50/50. That's 50% ground beef and 50% ground bacon. He even came up with this 50/50 stuffed meatloaf recipe that he cooked in cupcake

tins to make 50/50 stuffed meatloaf cupcakes.

Do you understand now, obsessed!  It was only logical that I attempt to make a cookie that highlighted our favorite ingredient....BACON!!!

Bacon Toffee Cookies

(loosely base on this Giant Chocolate Chip Recipe found on epicurious)

1 Package of Maple Bacon

2 1/4 Cups of All Purpose Flour

1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon of Salt

1 Cup of Unsalted Butter, Softened

3/4 Cup of Sugar

3/4 Cup of Packed Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon of Sour Cream

1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

2 Eggs

1 Cup of Toffee Chips

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.

Place bacon on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes or until crisp. When bacon is done place it on a plate and cover with a paper towel, let cool.

In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.

Mix butter, sugar, brown sugar, sour cream, and vanilla together until well blended.

Add eggs one at a time.

Slowly add dry ingredients.

Chop bacon into small pieces and add to the cookie dough.

Stir in toffee chips

Place a rounded teaspoon of cookie dough on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for approximately 10-12 min until edges of the cookie are golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute.

Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

                                          

                                           Noah "Bacon Man": "Sooo good!!"

Ian: "These are golden!!!"

                                                           (Not sure what that means)

Dane: "hmmmm.....I don't like it."

(his reaction surprise me the most) 

These cookies sparked huge interest from family and friends. I guess everything is better with bacon!