Mississippi Mud Cookies

You know, Ireland's got plenty of mud too... and, incidentally, oats. But somehow these close cousins of the English "flapjack" still have a nostalgic taste of our original home. DH gets a hankering for these every once in a while-- usually late at night when we have nothing sweet in the house and neither of us wants to undertake a lengthy baking project. They were more a part of his childhood than mine, but I am not one to argue when any recipe begins with chocolate. After some hunting around online I found a recipe that does not rely on peanut butter, because my dear daughter is allergic. That said, once the cookies were cooled and ready to eat I mashed a walnut half into the top of mine and it was delightful.

I reduced the white sugar from 2 cups in the original recipe to 1 1/2 cups but it still tasted like slightly too much. Next time I will cut it to 1 cup and perhaps use dark brown sugar instead of white. Also one COULD replace the butter with coconut oil. That is something to try next time around as well, though there is absolutely nothing wrong with the butter version!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup milk

3 cups rolled oats

6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup flaked coconut

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Bring sugar, milk and butter to boil. Boil for 2 minutes and remove from heat.
2. Stir in cocoa and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients to coat well.
3. Drop onto waxed paper by the tablespoonfuls. Cool and enjoy!

Gingerbread Cookies

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp (freshly) ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and black pepper, if using.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in molasses, water and vanilla, then gradually add in flour mixture until a smooth dough forms. Divide dough into two or three pieces (dough will be quite soft), cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until firm.
Preheat oven to 375F.

For softer cookies:
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to just under 1/4 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters of your choice (2-3″ gingerbread men are ideal!) to cut dough. Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on size of cookie cutter. Cookies should be slightly firm to the touch at the edges. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

For crispier cookies:
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to just under 1/8 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters of your choice (2-3″ gingerbread men are ideal!) to cut dough. Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on size of cookie cutter. Cookies should be slightly firm to the touch at the edges and will be lightly browned. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
When cool, decorate with lemon icing (recipe below).
Makes about 30-40 gingerbread men, depending on size of cookie cutters used and whether you make them thick or thin.

Lemon Icing
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2-3 tbsp tsp lemon juice

In a small bowl combine powdered sugar and lemon juice. Substitute milk or cream plus 1 tsp lemon extract, if no fresh lemon juice is available. Add enough lemon juice to make the icing thick and pourable, but not runny (start with 1-2 tbsp and add more if necessary. You can always add a bit of extra sugar to thicken it if you add too much) and stir until very smooth. Scrape into piping bag with a fine tip or a ziploc bag with a corner cut off and pipe onto cooled cookies. Allow to set for at least 30 minutes, until firm, before storing cookies in an airtight container.

Teff Peanut Butter Cookies

Having never baked with teff before, I made these cookies strictly by the book, or, by the package, as it were. The Bob's Red Mill bag of whole grain teff flour featured this recipe for cookies, and, since dairy and gluten free J was itching for something sweet today, and since I am always itching for something sweet, I thought wed give em a try. I was skeptical to say the least. No egg and no sugar? Also, I expected a somewhat sour taste like the teff-infused injera bread I've had at Ethiopian restaurants. Well, the sourness is no doubt the yeast or starter for the injera, because teff by itself, while hearty and dense, is delicious. I almost added some chocolate chips to this-- for insurance purposes-- but J refused. I'm glad he did because they baked up yummily without it. Though I am tempted to experiment now... teff brownies, anyone? The one thing is that they are crumbly, so once one starts to handle a teff cookie, one better devour it quickly!

1 1/2 c teff flour
1/2 t sea salt
1/ c maple syrup
1/2/ c sunflower oil
1 t vanilla
1 c peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350. Set aside an ungreased cookie sheet. In a large bowl combine dry ingredients. Set aside. In a food processor blend syrup, oil , vanilla, and peanut butter. Add the wet ingredients tot he dry ingredients. Blend well. Shape dough into walnut sized balls. Place on cookie sheet and flatten gently with the tines of a fork. Bake about 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Yields 24 cookies.

Chocolate Chip Rectangle

This is a cookie-in-a-pan concoction. Doesn't make portion control any easier, but I made scaled down the recipe in the hopes that even if we consumed the whole pan in a day and a half, at least it wasn't twice as much! This also evolved from what I thought was half a bag of chocolate chips I found languishing in the cupboard. By the time I had the modest amount of cookie dough all mixed up and ready to accept the chips, I discovered it to be more like 2/3 of a bag, so the end result is a super chocolatey treat. I think the proportions are kind of nice, actually. And the texture on these beat the crispy hard little discs my butter laden drop cookies tend to be. In rectangle form it becomes a melty, flaky, chewy, gooey sensation.

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c dark brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 t vanilla
1 1/8 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 -2/3 package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Butter (dimensions of pan) glass pan to prevent rectangle from sticking. In an electric mixer, cream the butter. Add the white and brown sugars and beat until fluffy. Beat in the egg. Then add the vanilla and beat until incorporated.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and beat until incorporated. Lastly, fold the in chocolate chips. Spread dough into rectangular pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Gingersnaps

From Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book -1989

2 1/4 C Flour
1 C packed brown sugar
3/4 C sunflower oil
1/4 C molasses
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 C granulated sugar for tops of cookies before baking

Combine half the flour and all the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Gradually add in the rest of the flour. Roll in 1 inch balls and dip in sugar. Bake at 375 until tops are crackled.

Note: Dough is dry and kind of hard to work with, but cookies turn out delicious.