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Honey Cranberry Cookies

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A new year means healthier eating right? But what about the cookies?

With resolutions of healthier eating it’s hard to give up snacks. So let’s talk oatmeal cookies, which come in all shapes and sizes. They really do. Soft and chewy, with ginger, chocolate chips, raisins, cinnamon and more. Everyone has a favourite and/or a favourite recipe they love. When I was a kid, my mom would make us papaya oatmeal cookies. I haven’t had one of those in years. But I found her recipe so it’s coming. To satisfy our sweet tooth and help get us through the first month of the year, we whipped up these Honey Cranberry Cookies.

Honey Cranberrey Cookies
Top view of the cookies

We’ve added cranberries, honey and sunflower seeds into this cookie to make us feel better about eating it. It works! And is the perfect January, get back to healthy, cookie treat to allow yourself on cheat days. Or in between.

Cinnamon Butter Cake

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Lately I’ve been going through old small town cookbooks where my mom inspired myself and so many of her family members to submit recipes to the annual cookbook collaboration. I have two of them dating back to the 90’s and as I go through these books carefully page by page, I can’t help but smile when I see an Aunt or a friend with a recipe I so fondly remember. I also have several recipes posted from my Vancouver days where I dabbled with cooking constantly.

Who also has these kinds of books? Please share in the comments!

I often wonder the history of some of these retro recipes. So many of them where taken from early early cookbooks and changed up a bit to become Grandma’s or Mom’s recipe. I recall being at a food blogger conference once where a representative from Random House Publishing said exactly the same thing. Every recipe starts from a book somewhere. While I don’t believe “every” recipe does starts from a book since I’ve whipped up my own from scratch, I’m sure there are many that had a helping hand.

This is one of those retro recipes I took from the book and changed up to suit my tastes. I’ve never heard of it before so I was excited to give it a go. It’s a butter cake but I added a ton of cinnamon into the glaze because why not? Cinnamon has health benefits so I needed something to make me feel better after all the, well, butter!

 

Cinnamon Butter Cake
Cinnamon Butter Cake

It’s moist and perfect with tea or coffee.

 

 

Cinnamon Butter Cake
Cinnamon Butter Cake

 

Espresso Cookies

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Espresso Cookies
Espresso Cookies

I like coffee and I love the smell of coffee. But I typically can only drink about half a cup of coffee before I’ve had enough. I even like it cold so the new nitro cold coffee fad was made for me. Unless of course my coffee comes with baileys or some other delectable enhancer.

While I may not drink a lot of coffee, I do like to eat my coffee. In baking and rubs and whatever else might work.

For this recipe I whipped up a batch of cookie dough and dropped in some of my ground espresso. What happened next was this insanely delicious cookie dough. In fact it was hard to stop eating it. The ground espresso showed beautiful flakes in the dough. It’s easy to roll out and doesn’t need to be refrigerated to firm up before baking.

The cookie dough displays a strong coffee flavour. The baked cookie just a hint. In fact my kids love this cookie (they are to young to drink coffee so they don’t really recognize the coffee flavour). You can add some sprinkles or not. Cut out any shape you like, re-roll and start over. These cookies were so good I’m going to go espresso & cookie crazy I think since the combinations could be endless.

Espresso Cookies
Espresso Cookies

 

Banana Orange Honey Muffins

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It might be hard to believe but our Banana Orange Honey Muffins are made without sugar and without eggs!

We try to use less white sugar and find suitable replacements. Honey or maple syrup are our go to when replacing white sugar and we almost always have success.

To make these muffins I added leftover orange honey and mashed banana instead of sugar. They turned out really good with just a hint of orange, and now I’m not so afraid to replace sugar with honey in other recipes!

No worries if you don’t have honey or maple syrup on hand, use 1/2 cup white sugar in replace of the honey. Adding orange zest and juice adds to the flavour especially if you do not have orange honey, which I usually do not!

Banana Orange Honey Muffins
Banana Orange Honey Muffins

Let me know what you think of these muffins in the comments if you make them. They are super moist, tasty and great for snacks and breakfast!

 

Festive Mars Bars Squares

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I am apparently a Mars Bars Squares Virgin. Who knew these delicious treats existed. I learned about them last summer on our way out of town on a camping trip. It always seems to take us soooo long to pack up no matter how many lists, and how efficient I am at getting things ready in advance. We can’t win. So by the time we get out of town we are exhausted by over excited kids and packing up…hence ready for a drink. But we are driving and have to wait for a beverage. So on this particular outing, we opted for coffee instead.

I checked out the GPS and there was surprisingly one on the way to our camping destination. So we stopped at at little place called Latte Da for our cuppa joe and were thrilled to find sweet treats available to. The folks in this little cafe were very friendly and when we walked in, they just so happen to be bringing out this huge platter of, well Mars Bars Squares. Intrigued, we bought a couple and devoured them before we left the cafe. Spectacular. A delicious tasting bite. I asked how they were made and Laurie, the  owner, graciously shared her recipe with me.

I went on to make these a couple times over the summer and then while thinking about my Christmas Holiday Baking Round up, the thought came to me to make them again…but with a little candy cane twist.

 

Festive Mars Bars Squares
Festive Mars Bars Squares

 

Cocoa Nib Shortbread by Kimberley’s Kitchen

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Kimberley over at Kimberley’s Kitchen and I share a common bond….we are both Northern BC girls. I grew up in Northern BC and even though I left in 1989, I still pay homage to the town I grew up in. Kimberley lives in a town near where I grew up and it is there she creates hand-crafted artisan confections and fine foods using organic, fair trade and local ingredients/foods to create delicious treats and baked goods. Cooler yet is she sells them in her online store and packages them in sustainable bags and boxes. I’ve actually had my eyes on her marshmallows for quite some time!

We’ve gotten to know each other over social media, and I’m so thrilled to have Kimberley as my Guest Blogger for December. She is another one of those friends I feel like I’ve known a long time. Maybe it’s that NBC bond we share. In any case I was supposed to have this post up a little earlier this month, but sick on top of sick, my husband being sick, my MIL sick following surgery, plus a new puppy to keep us up at night…well let’s just say we are doing our best to capture the Christmas spirit this year.

I hope Kimberley doesn’t mind me sharing her fantastic news, but she is going to be moving her baking operation into a commercial kitchen in the New Year with construction beginning in January!! Such an exciting time for her and her family. I know it’s going to be a great year for her and wish her much success! Make sure you get to know Kimberley from Kimberley’s Kitchen…I think she’s going to be quite famous one day :).

Shortbread cookies are a mainstay in my kitchen and a popular cookie to make with my daughters. We love to experiment with new flavors and we recently tried making some with raw cocoa nibs. Have you cooked or baked with cocoa nibs before? They have a wonderfully nutty, chocolate flavour but are not at all sweet. So if you like bittersweet chocolate or coffee, try adding cocoa nibs into your recipes for something a little different. The bittersweet cocoa nib perfectly compliments the sweetness of the shortbread in this recipe and is a fun, new cookie for the holidays. Variations include using orange extract instead of vanilla, or finishing the cookies with some sweet chocolate drizzle. Enjoy! – Kimberley

 

Cocoa Nib Shortbread by Kimberley's Kitchen
Cocoa Nibs for Shortbread. Photo by Kimberley’s Kitchen

 

Eggnog Sugar Cookies with Candy Cane Sprinkles

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What a crazy past couple of weeks. I remember Halloween..then my son’s birthday and wham here we are just weeks away from Christmas. From frantic bake sale baking, long distance cookie swap baking to mom’s wine night & cookie exchange baking….I feel like I barely came out alive. Maybe I just take on too much every holiday season and need to rethink my strategy next year. To add to all the craziness was the onset of the sick in November. From colds, pneumonia, bronchitis, tonsillitis to ear infections..4 in our party of 5 got hit pretty hard and I was one of them. Seems the older you get the harder you fall and while I don’t usually get sick, I fell pretty hard this time. Which meant no wine for weeks. On the bright side we are all done with being sick and I refuse to let it back in the house any time soon. Bring on Christmas.

One of the cookie swaps I am involved with again this year is the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2014. It’s a world wide affair but you have to be a Food Blogger to participate. For a small submission fee (goes to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer), you get matched up with other Food Bloggers in your Country. You always hope you end up with delicious cookies but that is the chance you take when you participate in something like this. It annoys me to no end to hear people complain that their cookies were not that good. Then honestly don’t participate it’s that simple since it’s for charity and it’s fun. The only thing I wish more bloggers would do is get acquainted with the more popular social media channels!! This year I sent my cookie swap cookies to BC and Saskatchewan. A little closer for me and I was happy about that (less travel time).

I had wanted to do a shortbread cookie this year. And after testing out one recipe I totally changed my game plan as I had also been wanting to create an eggnog cookie. For like years. So with just days to spare I came up with I guess a cross between a blossom cookie and a sugar cookie. I say sugar as the ingredients closely resemble a sugar cookie recipe. Took me two tries to get the ingredients right, but I did and it’s pretty darn good. I ran out of chocolate kisses so improvised with chocolate balls. I like this idea so much, my next batch of blossom style cookies will have balls and not kisses.

The cookies I received from Bloggers are: World Peace Cookies from The Blenderist, Coffee Sugar Cookies from Oven Mitt Adventures, and just received is my prettiest package yet, Sour Cherry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies by Wanna Come With. A fun way to get to know other bloggers!

This recipe makes close to 30 cookies so I had lots leftover. So much so I made these Eggnog Sugar Cookies with Candy Cane Sprinkles for another cookie swap!

 

Brownie Cake

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Recently I received some samples (cooking sauces and marinade) from Pulo Philippine Cuisine. I started browsing their pamphlets to see how they have used the products themselves. While everything looked tasty, I wasn’t getting inspired and couldn’t get past the basics. So they sat a for a few days. And then like Snow in Calgary in September, it hit me….forget savory…go for sweet.

The Tinaga Island Coconut Adobo Cooking Sauce is so far one of my favourites (ok only got through 2 of 6 so far). It’s both tasty and the great thing about coconut is you can take it to savory or sweet. Plus it had vinegar in it and my mom used to make a chocolate cake recipe with vinegar. I knew I was onto something, so I decided to make Brownies. With the Pulo Coconut Adobo Cooking Sauce you say? Why the heck not. Nobody puts Baby in a Corner….(little Dirty Dancing reference there). Besides isn’t this how all the great recipes are born…trial & error?!

Brownie Cake
Brownie Cake

This recipe started off as a Brownie recipe. As I was making it I went looking for my 9 x 11 baking dish to pour the brownies into. Discovered it was in use and so I substituted the 9×9 instead. And without further ado, this recipe went from Brownies, to Brownie Cake. A substitution gone right.

One minion advised she could taste a hint of coconut in the brownie. Husband mentioned a tiny hint of heat. The flavours were there and I have to say these Brownie Cakes tasted equally delicious with freshly whipped cream and vanilla ice cream.

Tinaga Island is part of the Bicol region of the Phillipines, an area renowned for hot chili and coconut milk dishes. And it’s now on my list of places I want to visit.

 

Coconut Banana Bread

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With so many varieties of banana bread out there, it’s nice to shake things up once in awhile. This Coconut Banana Bread never lasts longer than a day in our family. The addition of coconut and orange zest is not over powering, yet adds a nice subtle flavour boost.

My kids are always asking for banana bread or muffins, but we never seem to have leftover, “ripe” bananas. I finally started buying two stacks of bananas at the grocery stores allowing some of the bananas to become ripe. And baking to be done!

Serve this Coconut Banana Bread with butter, cream cheese or a drizzle of honey. A perfect anytime snack.

Makes 1 loaf.

 

Vincci Tsui’s 2 Minute Chocolate Quinoa Cake

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April’s Guest Blogger Vincci Tsui is not only a Food-Lover (not using the word Foodie), and Food Blogger, but also a well known Registered Dietitian about town. More often than not while enjoying my morning cup of Java and prepping for my day, I will see Vincci pop up on the BT Calgary’s (Breakfast Television) Morning Show sharing her knowledge of healthier food choices & recipes with the hosts and viewing audience.

In addition, she is a Cooking Instructor at Start From Scratch, a program that teaches post-secondary students the benefits of preparing a quality, home-cooked meal. I love her philosophy of having a relationship with all foods. I’ve always believed everything in moderation. Vincci is a very busy lady these days, and I am honoured to call her a friend. So excited to try out Vincci’s 2 Minute Chocolate Quinoa Cake!

 

Hi, my name is Vincci. I love delicious food that nourishes.

I started Ceci n’est pas un food blog over seven (!) years ago when I was still a student at McGill. I had kept personal blogs since before blogging was even called blogging (Hellooooo, Teen Open Diary!), and moving to Montreal (well, technically, a suburb called Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, which is home to McGill’s agricultural and environmental campus), I learned to cook for myself alongside my classmates. I remember in first year my dorm room was across from the communal kitchen and every week a bus would take us from the campus to a nearby grocery store. All the French exchange students would make stacks and stacks of late night crêpes. I found my personal blog posts started veering more and more towards the food that I was making, and having discovered food blogs like Amateur Gourmet and Smitten Kitchen, I decided to start one of my own.

Since then, my blog has evolved from horrible photos of the recipes I made in residence, to moving back home from university and blogging more about restaurants as I enjoyed mom’s cooking, to its current state of slightly better photos (thanks partly to my brother, who taught me the rule of thirds), a mix of reviews and recipes, PLUS a monthly check-up of my new year’s resolutions.

Four years ago, inspired by the National Food Blogger Bake Sale in the states, I started the Calgary Food Blogger Bake Sale. I remember how nerve-racking it was to email “famous” Calgary food bloggers like Dinner with Julie’s Julie van Rosendaal, but everyone was very open and friendly. In the end, there were about 20 of us who baked, and we raised $1,200 for Calgary Meals on Wheels. More importantly, I met so many great people in Calgary’s food blogging community and many of us have become great friends. (That’s how I met Wanda!) I’m also so lucky that this community has brought me a lot of opportunities professionally as well. (I always joke I’m riding on the coattails of my friend Dan.) It’s crazy to me how the community continues to grow. For the most recent bake sale, I contacted nearly 60 bloggers!

Aside from being a food blogger (I hate the term “foodie”), I get to talk about food all day in my job as a registered dietitian. Recently I realized that my profession gives me the opportunity to do almost all the things I wanted to be at some point in time as a kid – teacher, journalist, therapist, on TV… I did want to be an interior designer or makeup artist too at one point, but I can’t draw or put colours together to save my life! My earlier posts did have a bit of a nutrition slant, but now I leave that for my professional site, VincciTsui.com.

While I LOVE and am proud of being a registered dietitian, sometimes I can’t help but be a little hesitant when people ask what I do. Because I’m a bit on the smaller side (thank you, genes… and Muay Thai four days a week!), there is always someone that says something along the lines of, “Oh, you must eat so healthy! That’s why you’re so thin!” or “Teach me how to eat so I can look like you!” If you follow my blog, or even my Instagram, you can see that I am certainly not the face of “clean eating”, but now that I think of it, nor do I want to be. To me, having a positive relationship with all foods, whether they’re nutrient-dense or poor, is more important than having a “perfect” diet, whatever that means. Food should never make you feel guilty… unless you obtained it unlawfully!

When it comes to not-so-nutritious foods, I’m more of a salty/crunchy snack lover (yummm chips and popcorn) as opposed to having a sweet tooth, but when I do get dessert, I almost always choose the richest, most decadent and chocolatey one. This chocolate cake in a mug is perfect for a quick chocolate fix when a square of dark chocolate just doesn’t cut it. It only takes two minutes in the microwave, and it comes out warm and decadent, but with a touch of airiness. I have a bag of quinoa flour of unknown origin, so I can make it gluten-free (but then I add instant coffee, which, depending on the brand, makes it not.)  I use coconut oil for the flavour, not because it’s “better for you” (the evidence is pretty weak). If you’re into the spicy Mexican chocolate thing, cinnamon and some sort of chili (cayenne, ancho or chipotle) is delicious too.

This recipe is adapted from my friend Mallory at TotalNoms.com. She has a cute video for it!

sdfsd

Vincci Tsui Chocolate Mug Cake
Vincci Tsui’s Chocolate Quinoa Cake

Aromatic Five Spice Ginger Cookies

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This is my second time posting this very tasty Five Spice Ginger Cookie recipe. I first created these bites last Fall, for the 3rd Annual Calgary Food Bloggers Bake Sale. They were a delicious hit and so tasty my mouth is watering looking at the picture. You can find the original recipe post from September here: Five Spice Ginger Cookies.

I am re-posting this recipe in all it’s infinite glory as I am entering the Sweet Dreams Cookie Contest by Crosby’s. This is actually a perfect reminder I have two containers of Crosby’s Fancy Molasses sitting in my pantry needing to get used up. I know I’ll be making them again soon. Probably this week. Maybe tomorrow.

After deciding I drink to much espresso and eat way to many ginger cookies at a very popular coffee chain, I was inspired to make my own version of this cookie. A healthier version. Had to be the same size however because, after all, bigger is better, isn’t it?! Inspiration comes from everywhere.

I wanted to turn it up a notch and decided to use a favourite spice blend, Five Spice Powder. The aromatic combination of spices would be the perfect match in this cookie. My gamble paid off as it’s an explosion of equally balanced flavours in every bite.

Taste testers love this monster cookie and I think you will too.

 

Carrot Lentil Whoopie Pies

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This recipe is the combination of a Carrot Cupcake and a Pumpkin Whoopie Pie recipe. Yes it is possible to put pureed lentils into cookies which is how we got to these Carrot Lentil Whoopie Pies. And the kids don’t have a clue.

Batch one came about last week. Just before I got hit with a wicked head cold and the sick. Needless to say I couldn’t taste them, so I didn’t bother to ice them. Just sent the cookies out as is to friends, teachers at the school and of course my husband’s work mates. The feedback I got was incredible. Words like “exotic flavours” and the perfect amount of spice. Others advised there wasn’t enough spice. All good feedback since I cut back on sugar and oil in this recipe. The other surprise for everyone was they contained pureed green lentils. In fact you can put pureed lentils into most baking for that extra protein kick. Loved the feedback, which helped immensely.

Lentil cookie round two came about today. My sniffer was back, taste buds in check, a few modifications I needed to make were made and I think batch two was way better than the first batch from last week. Will have to wait to hear from the testers again but this time they have been iced.

One thing I decided to change with batch two was only using baking soda. In batch one I used baking soda and powder. The cookies were pretty big. This time, without using baking powder, they still turned out puffy. So the kids are enjoying eating them as singles with a dollop of icing on top. I say whatever works.

This will be my second entry into the Canadian Lentils Contest and my baked goods entry. I further created a Lentil Balls recipe a couple weeks ago, well according to the photo dates, it was March 5th. But the sick and all kinds of other stuff has kept me from getting that recipe posted. Soon I hope.

These cookies are moist, not too sweet, yet flavourful and I’m told delicious as is or with a dollop of icing in the middle.

 

Vanilla Kipferl

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My daughter has been in Girl Guides for 4 years. My time flies. During this time she has been able to experience all kinds of fun outings and adventures with her district group. Truly a great activity for children to be involved in.

This week they celebrated Chinese New Year and part of the celebration included a Mission Impossible. This translates to Brownie Badge Work. Part of their cultural celebration included being asked to share a food from within their own culture. While our family is definitely a mixed bag (Ukrainian, Romanian, German, English, Swedish), we do not follow any one culture or religion. We keep an open mind and are open to all cultures and religion. Having said that I did grow up eating all kinds of yummy goodness including: cabbage rolls, borscht, pierogi, sauerkraut, and more.

Looking at ideas for food items for her to make and bring in, that were relatively easy, I told her about some of the German cookies my mom used to make. Cookies I’ve never even made. And honestly had forgotten about. Together we decided on a cookie recipe, one I remembered being almond and crescent shaped. A quick call to some relatives and we were ready to get baking.

We modified the recipe slightly and it turned out spectacular. I am so very proud of my little girl and her enthusiasm about this Mission and excitement over making something from our German heritage.

These are easier than you think and oh so enjoyable.

 

Orange Pistachio Ice Box Cookies

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This was the second batch of three ice box cookies I was testing in December. The last of the 3 turned out but one or two things didn’t, so the 3rd recipe won’t be featured on the blog. What I learned making Ice Box Cookies is you can put almost anything into them…well almost.

These cookies are both pretty to look at and easy to make. The combination of pistachios, orange and cranberries transcends both sweet and savory items and is always a winner when it comes to baking.

And I love the ice box cookie concept. Get your dough ready, roll and pop into the freezer to be made at a later date. This is something I might consider for a future cookie exchange. Each lady gets a frozen log to take home and a batch of the cookies. Fun!

 

Chocolate Gingerbread Brownies

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I seemed to be a on a gingerbread kick this past Fall. Since finding a flavour combination we all love in these Five Spice Ginger Cookies, I have had so many food ideas in my head that I want to start testing. But as it goes we are at the end of the year, well, we were yesterday when I started this post, and with the craziness of getting our seafood feast ready for last evening, it didn’t get posted.

Today is a new day, and a new year full of hope and happiness. The recipe is up and I wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Monday night some friends and I gathered later in the evening to celebrate a birthday with a few glasses of wine. Most of the ladies there as far as I know are transplants, meaning we all come from other Provinces in Canada and have no immediate family here in Calgary. I am grateful for these friends to share life’s ups and downs with when needed. A couple hours out with the girls to just chat, enjoy some bits n bites, some wine and good company always soothes the soul.

And true to form I can’t just show up at a gathering, as simple as it is, without some form of food (and wine) in hand. Last night was the perfect night to test out a few recipes on said friends, who admit they are willing guinea pigs who love to try my food. Rave reviews on these brownies and here is the recipe.

Made a couple days prior and dusted with icing sugar upon serving, these brownies are a moist, flavourful and sinfully delicious bite. I could have iced these brownies, but I felt they had enough flavour to stand alone and nobody noticed the lack of icing.

Omit the cocoa powder and you have an equally delicious Gingerbread Brownie, minus the chocolate.

 

Kringle’s Cookies

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These cookies should really be called the last of the Christmas baking ingredients garbage cookies because essentially that is what they are. Searching through my pantry one day looking for inspiration on a cookie, and I started coming across all kinds of last little bits of ingredients to use up…a small ziplock bag of toasted coconut…bag of pecans…leftover glazed cherries…whatever I could find that looked good is what I grabbed and tossed into these cookies.

The cookie testers (including my Uncle) loved the cookies plain, meaning without any additional dipping into the naughty white chocolate and sprinkling of candy canes. The rest of the cookie testers loved them both ways and I must say the extra candy canes and white chocolate really do add that extra touch to these cookies that make them spectacular.

Now they could be made anytime of the year. Just omit the candy canes and use any hard candy, or even sprinkle plain rice krispies on the chocolate instead of holiday ones. And you could dip them into milk or dark chocolate.

Very pleased with how these cookies turned out and I can’t wait to make them again!

 

Orange Gingerbread Cookies

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A couple years ago I started a Mom’s Wine Group and this lead to an annual Cookie Exchange. It’s turned out to be a great evening hanging with the ladies each holiday season, talking smack, kids, partners or husbands, enjoying wine, bites and at the end of the evening getting to go home with dozens of cookies and/or holiday baking. Love this time with friends and the gift of cookies that keeps on giving. Until they are all gone.

This year I am making cookies for both our Annual Group Cookie Exchange, and, since I am always up for a challenge, The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2013. This Cookie Swap is Worldwide and you have to be a Food Blogger to participate. For a small submission fee (goes to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer), you get matched up with other Food Bloggers in your Country. Since my country “Canada” is rather large, I was paired with Food Bloggers who live in Eastern Canada. I am in the West.

For the cookie swap I needed a cookie that could stand up to traveling across Canada and arrive in one piece. Since moving to Calgary, I had been slightly challenged with getting a gingerbread cookie right, so I decided I was going to conquer gingerbread and declared let Battle Gingerbread begin.

Orange Gingerbread Cookies
Orange Gingerbread Cookies

A month or so ago I got to work playing with ingredients as I prefer soft gingerbread cookies and wanted to make sure I could come up with a recipe to get a soft cookie. In Calgary we are 3400 ft above sea level and as such ingredients need to be adjusted to compensate as this affects baking. The higher the altitude, the lower the atmospheric pressure. Lower pressure in turn causes water to evaporate more quickly. On or around my 3rd gingerbread cookie attempt I got the ingredients right with a little help from my Five Spice Ginger Cookies. Using a similar ingredient plan I was able to get the right consistency and taste adding in some orange zest for additional zip. Super Yum and I’ve even turned a few non gingerbread cookie fans into gingerbread cookie lovers with these gems.

If you choose to decorate and ice, I have included the royal icing recipe I use. The kids love to decorate these cookies and I love this cookie that has now become a family favourite and a new tradition.

By participating in the Food Blogger Cookie Swap I also received 3 fabulous cookies from Food Bloggers across Canada. Heather from The Tasty Gardener in Toronto sent over some “tasty” Egg Nog Cookies. Sarah at Feasts For All Seasons in Vancouver (my old stomping grounds & heart City) provided me with a Lovely cookie called Chocolate Gingerbread Crackles. Evelyne from Cheap Ethnic Eatz in Montreal sent along some Ohh La La Candied Orange Peel Shortbread. Fantastic cookies all around and I can’t wait until next year’s Cookie Swap 2014!

 

Orange Gingerbread Cookies
Orange Gingerbread Cookies

Merry Cherry Ice Box Cookies

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Always wanting to create and try new cookie combinations I decided to investigate Ice Box Cookies as they are new territory for me. I googled ice box cookies and learned they are simply butter, sugar, eggs, flour, a few other ingredients and your add in of choice. Pretty much the basis to any cookie, except they are rolled and put into the fridge or freezer until ready to use. As usual my mind started spinning with all kinds of combinations I could make and so I went back to one of my basic cookie dough recipes and excitedly made 3 different variations of ice box cookies in two days hoping they would all turn out great.

The only time I used candied cherries is in Christmas baking, so I fondly named these Merry Cherry Ice Box Cookies. For my first batch of cookies, I opted to make them without baking soda or powder to see what they’d do. And I rolled them in toasted coconut since I love coconut. They turned out lovely and good enough to share. A simple but tasty little cookie that has received 4 thumbs up here.

 

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

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Seems we live in a world of Whoopie Pies these days. Everywhere I go there are Whoopie Pies! Never being one to jump on a band wagon, I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve ever had or made a Whoopie Pie. It started when friends invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. Our friends were making a traditional turkey dinner and so I planned on making a traditional pumpkin pie. But I wanted something else, something more, just in case some people do not care for pumpkin pie. I googled pumpkin and have no idea how I ended up at pumpkin whoopie pies, but I did and the idea stuck. Always up for a challenge, this was definitely going to be uncharted territories. I do not particularly like to bring a recipe to a gathering that I have not tested yet. But there wasn’t much time and with the array of ingredients I had assembled, I felt quite confident making these cookies.

After browsing tons of whoopie pie recipes, all with similar measurements and ingredients, I finally made up a list of what I needed, combining a few ideas into my own concoction. In the end this recipe is not too far off some of the ones I saw and so I’m not sure who to give credit to, but I will go with the first recipe I looked at.

These cookies ended up being super easy to make and incredibly tasty both with and without the cream cheese icing. They would be the perfect bake sale item.

Now that I have made a basic whoopie pie, and they were a huge hit this past Thanksgiving, I am predicting more whoopie pies in our future. And just so you know, these cookies taste equally delicious with a dollop of leftover whipping cream on top!

 

Five Spice Ginger Cookies

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Thrilled to be participating again in the 3rd Annual Calgary Food Bloggers Bake Sale. Proceeds from this Bake Sale go to The Calgary Foundation’s Flood Rebuilding Fund. A great charity to support considering the year Calgarians and Albertans have had following the nasty flood of 2013.

This is my first kick at the can with a ginger molasses cookie. Love to eat them. Bad habit of buying them at Starbucks all the while wondering about all the extra additives that might be in them. Until now. Starting with a basic cookie dough recipe and adding a whole whack of stuff, I believe I have given Starbucks a run for their money and no longer need to buy their cookies since these are delicious.

Early this week I decided to make these cookies but as always wanted to add my own spin. At first I thought chocolate dipped ginger cookies. But then, after snooping through my spices, I decided I would add in some Five Spice. I use Five Spice all the time and figured it would pair nicely with the spice in the cookie.

My gamble paid off as it’s an explosion of equally balanced flavours in every bite. I’ve gotten all kinds of positive feedback from the taste testers who have received a batch of these cookies and loved them. I choose to make these cookies for the bake sale, monster size. Definitely make them smaller if that’s what you prefer and you will get more out of the batch.

Another tip: make sure your butter is softened, not melting. It is the key to getting a good chewy molasses cookie. It was a hot day when I made these cookies and as such a hot evening in the house. I recall the inside temperature reading 27 degrees at one point. As you can imagine, my room temperature butter would melt and I would have to put it back in the fridge to firm up. Quite the game butter and I played the night I made these cookies.

 

Cast Iron Grilled Blueberry Focaccia

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Inspiration hit full on when I attended the BC Blueberry launch recently at Model Milk. The Chef prepared so many amazing blueberry bites, that I’m sure all the attendees left full and happy. We were given swag bags to bring home and they included fresh blueberries (insert happy dance)!

There were several of the bites that stood out for me. One of them was the Blueberry Focaccia’s served in mini cast iron pans. Brilliant and a hit amongst everyone. For weeks I have been wanting to recreate this dish and thinking about how I would do it.

The time came and I decided to make the dough in the bread maker and grill it on the Barbecue. I’ve made focaccia dough in the bread maker before so I was confident it would work. And it did work out exceptionally well. The only con is the Bocconcini melted into the bread so next time I may wait to add it until the last few minutes or so of cooking.

You could also take this recipe camping. Pre-make your dough and keep it in the cooler or buy some pizza dough before you depart on your camping trip. Just make sure you bring the blueberries and a cast iron pan!

The kids gobbled it up. The husband like it. A success! Leftover focaccia ended up being the perfect lunch the next day.

 

Blueberry Cardamom Muffins

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Everybody has a blueberry muffin recipe. Blueberries with lemon glaze, orange zest, cinnamon, white chocolate, nutmeg, nuts, anything seems to go. When I created these muffins I was looking for a quick way to use up my BC blueberries. Using the muffin method recipe we were taught in high school (ha ha ha, it’s true), I decided to try adding in coconut & cardamom to see what kind of flavour we could achieve.

Using cardamom was something I had heard used in pancakes from an old colleague. It appeared to be a spice gaining popularly so trying it in muffins seemed legit. It was an unusually cool Fall day in August, which made it feel right to whip up a batch of muffins and smell up the house.

This recipe makes approximately 16 large muffins.

 

Blueberry Mint Cookies

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It’s time again for the Food Bloggers of Canada and Eat In Eat Out Christmas in July Cookie Contest! I look forward to this cookie contest as it give me the opportunity to brain storm cookie ideas that I would not normally create. Since we were smack dab in the middle of blueberry season I wanted to create a fresh blueberry cookie. Although I never got around to posting the recipes, last summer I experimented with some fresh herbs in cookies and they worked out nicely. And so I wanted to incorporate a fresh herb in my blueberry cookies.

After thinking about what flavours pair nicely with blueberries, I decided on a combination of crystallized ginger, fresh mint and fresh blueberries. The trio tasted lovely together before being baked into a cookie so I figured it could work as a savory cookie.

The first batch fell a little flat, literally, and the blueberries released their lovely juices all over the cookie sheet. They were still edible and in one piece so I sent out test cookies to various audiences. The Sr. Director of my husbands department at work compared the taste of these cookies to the complex yet subtle notes of a fine wine. NOW that is a compliment! So I went back into the kitchen and reworked some of the ingredients resulting in this variation. Sent some more out for testing again and so far the feedback has been remarkable. All the kid testers have also loved them.

I ran out of all purpose flour while making these cookies so I substituted 3/4 cup white flour with whole wheat flour.

A very unique cookie that will leave your cookie monsters delighted.

 

Bakers Brown Butter Blondies

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This is one of the easiest recipes to make and one our family has enjoyed for many years.

In a nutshell it’s a big cookie bar with whatever add-ins you want, baked in a dish.  It’s your basic cookie dough recipe and can easily be made into cookies.

Simply perfect for pot lucks, picnics, gatherings….you can spruce it up or keep it simple.  I like to whip up a quick batch to bring camping since it’s that easy.  I love how chewy it is on the inside and crunchy around the outer edges.

This batch makes just over one dozen squares depending on how big you cut them.  One batch is never enough for our family.  When you make them nut free they are perfect for school snacks.

Add-ins could be anything from nuts to cut up chocolate bar, toffee bits, smarties or m&ms, marshmallows or broken pretzels.  For this recipe my add-ins are peanut butter chips and chocolate chips.