Double Chocolate Dream

Healthy eaters out there…don’t turn away from this post! The cookie recipe I am about to share with you comes from a Weight Watchers cookbook (but if you don’t tell anyone, I’m sure they’d never guess). More specifically, it comes from a WW cookbook called All Things Sweet that my mom purchased back in 1999. I’m sure it must be out of print, but if you click the above link, you can see what’s available through Amazon. I love this book. Actually, a couple of my favourite (and most popular) recipes come from it- these cookies, a great peanut butter cookie recipe, cream cheese brownies (best recipe I’ve found, seriously) and black bottom cheesecake cups, to name a few. I snapped a picture of the open pages to cry and capture just how “well-loved” this cookbook is. Although it’s hard to see, there are splatter marks everyone, and I can assure you, it’s this way throughout the cookbook.

I made these on the weekend because I was going to a get-together at a friend’s house (hi Megan :P). I wanted to bring something that I knew would be a crowd-pleaser, but that I could enjoy guilt-free. I’m not sure why these cookies came to my mind, as I haven’t made them in at LEAST 5 years (probably more), but I’m so glad they did. As soon as I made them, I asked myself why it had been so long. Rest assured, I will not wait so long before making these again. They have a great fudge-y, brownie-ish texture…achieved with only 3 tbsp vegetable oil! One cookie has just 64 calories and 1.6 grams of fat (1 point on the old WW system). A batch makes 48 cookies (or in my case, 46, with enough batter for a good bowl-licking). Give these a try…they aren’t just “good for low fat” cookies, they are just plain YUMMY!

Before I post the recipe, an update on yesterday’s run….8 miles seemed long enough in windy, snowy weather. I ran almost entirely on the road (not sidewalks), which was fine, as there wasn’t much traffic out at 8:30 on a holiday Monday. I can really tell how the wind and snow slow me down, compared with all of my summer training runs. My time wasn’t what I would have liked, but I toughed it out and made it! When I got back, I enjoyed a DELICIOUS bowl of hot oatmeal with apples. I didn’t plan to take a bath, but my muscles were a little sore and I was COLD, so I enjoyed a quick hot bath with Epsom salts (I should have added that to my list of running tips…I think my frequent Epsom salt soaks were a big part of reducing muscle soreness). I’m hoping the weather is a little nicer for my 9 miler next weekend :)…update will follow.

Double Chocolate Chews

from WW All Things Sweet

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup icing sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened sugar

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips, divided (note: it’s important to use the mini chips, since a small amount gets put in the cookies, the mini size goes a lot farther than full size ones)

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 1/2 tbsp light corn syrup

1 tbsp water

2 2/1 tsp vanilla extract

3 egg whites

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl; stir well with a whisk, and set aside.

Combine 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips and vegetable oil in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave until chocolate melts (1 and 1/2 to 2 minutes). Stir until all chips have melted, and let cool slightly. Add brown sugar and next 4 ingredients to chocolate mixture, and stir well. Stir in flour and remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips.

Drop dough by level tablespoons 2 inches apart on to baking sheets coated with cooking spray (I lined the sheets with parchment paper first for easy clean-up). Bake for 8 minutes. Let cool on pans 2 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pans; let cool on wire racks. Yield: 4 dozen cookies.

Try these…you won’t regret it!

Chocolate Mint Cookie Snowballs

*Note: Although this blog has the word healthy in the name, I also love to bake (and occasionally eat) treats that are decidedly unhealthy. The treats in this post fall into that category. Read on at your own peril  – they are absolutely delicious – so if you face a chocolate mint craving, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

You may have noticed this by now, but when the weather turns bad, I love to stay in and bake. You also may have noticed that I love to use up leftovers, especially when I can re-invent them in a new creation. So when the snow changed my plans on the weekend, I took the opportunity to do both of those things and came up with Chocolate Mint Cookie Snowballs.

I had some cookies leftover from Christmas in the freezer. Normally, this isn’t a problem, as I like to have cookies in the freezer in case I need a quick dessert if we have company. But these cookies were particularly festive-looking: chocolate chip cookies made with Christmas m&m’s and chopped candy canes, do I felt it would be quite obvious that I was using Christmas leftovers if I served them, and it is almost February. I also had quite a few leftover mini candy canes (which I bought to make the cookies) and some green peppermint frosting leftover from when I made Christmas cupcakes for my class at school. Obviously I couldn’t just save these items for next Christmas, so I got to work on an idea to use them up while downplaying their festive look.

I got the idea from Bakerella’s Cake Balls, which I have made numerous times and are always a crowd-pleaser. The shot on the right is the “before” shot. I let the cookies thaw, and the icing come to room temperature. Then, I placed the cookies in my mini food processor and ground them until they were nice, fine crumbs. I put the crumbs back into the mixing bowl and added the icing, mixing with a spoon and my hands until the mixture came together. I rolled the mixture into balls, put them on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet and popped the sheet into the freezer for about 20 minutes so they could firm up.

While the balls were freezing, I chopped the candy canes (using the old reliable “put them in a ziploc bag and whack with a heavy object until desired consistency” method). I also melted my chocolate – I like to use melting wafers (those round discs you can find at bulk stores or the bulk section of some grocery stores) because they have a better consistency for coating when melted. I melted the chocolate in a small mug (in the microwave) so it would be deep enough to submerge the balls and thinned it out with a little vegetable oil to make dipping easier.

I dipped the balls in the melted, thinned chocolate and tapped off excess chocolate with a spoon. After placing each dipped ball back on the cookie sheet, I finished them off with a dusting of candy cane “snow” before the chocolate set. I was quite pleased with the final product (see top photo) and I think the recipients of these treats were pleased as well :). No festive leftovers wasted and yummy cookie balls to share – everyone wins! I still have a few left…who wants them?

Grab ‘n Go

This is the last of my posts about my snow day baking adventures (sorry if you’re getting tired of them 😉 ). As with the banana bread, these Grab ‘n Go breakfast cookies are great to make ahead of time and freeze, then they’re available to grab for a quick and healthy breakfast or snack. And also, as you can see from the photo, they are HUGE (a quality I like in food). Surprise, surprise, these cookies are another Hungry Girl recipe (can you tell I yet how much I love her recipes?).

Like the banana bread, there is no sugar or fat in these cookies. So you may notice the texture is a bit different than what you might expect (they don’t crisp up or brown). But I promise you, the flavour is all there – pumpkin, baby food peaches, dried cranberries and raisins all baked up in a fibre-packed giant oatmeal cookie? C’mon, you know it’s gonna be good! And they freeze beautifully for a breakfast you can put together on your way out the door. Just grab one of these, a cheese head you bought at Costco, and a piece of fruit, and you’re good to go! Another bonus to these cookies (at least for me) is that the recipe only makes 4. Since my mom doesn’t really like these, it’s nice to be able to make a small batch and not have to worry about having my freezer jam-packed with these for weeks or months to come.

And here is a breakfast I made this week that included one of these cookies and another one of my made-in-advance time savers. I heated up one of these cookies, mixed 1/2 cup of my tasty pomegranate etc fruit sauce with 1/2 cup plain yogurt and a bit of Splenda, and made one of my pumpkin spice latte drinks. This was a delicious breakfast that could not have been enjoyed with doing some prep work in advance. By making a few things on the weekend, you can enjoy a lot more variety during the week.

Do you have any tricks for making breakfast (or other) foods in advance to save time during the week?