Happy Holidays everyone! Things have been simply crazy this year – some good some not good – such is life. Am hoping to post some newer stuff – as always delicious – soon.

I recently had to get a new phone – my blackberry dated back to the Jurassic era and was just not working anymore – so I bought an iPhone.

I am so loving it. Even for spontaneous food photography!

I have been using my food photography as wallpaper images on my iPhone and have been enjoying images I have not seen in ages.

I thought that I would share one of them with you all. (for free of course)

While surfing on your smartphone CLICK THIS LINK to get a larger version of the image above – save it and then use it as wallpaper!

Let me know if you decide to use it.

As we all move into the holiday season, many of us will be gearing up to do quite a lot of baking and then cooking on Thanksgiving and the end of year holiday feasts.

One of the things I love about this time is cooking with pumpkin and also the traditional spices such as cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and even cardamom.

When I was invited to the Baking with Betty event at General Mills, I learned about a special edition product called “Pumpkin Spice Cookies” (see below) and I even got to meet the woman who worked to develop the recipe, the packaging and the marketing for this product.

She was very proud of these cookies and was eager to hear how we all felt about them.

In theory, they sounded delicious. I FINALLY found the mix in my local grocery store and now, after making them and sharing them with my family, I know they are delicious in practice!

I added chocolate chips because I had an open bag – simply awesome.

[I bought this mix myself and was not obligated to discuss them here on this blog. I just share them because I found them delicious!]

A fact of life with kids and school these days – Snack Must Be Provided For Snack Time.

Week after week I have to find a snack that the kids will eat but which is not nasty like cheezits or chips or other sorts of candy.

Sometimes they go in with cheese, other times homemade saltines, some times homemade bread.

The little ones had half a day today and were quite adamant about wanting cookies so I decided to make some cookies that I would not feel guilty (well not TOO guilty) about letting them eat. These will also last for a few days as snacks.

I ground my own whole wheat flour for this recipe. It would be better for us if the berries had been pre-sprouted (like you see in this post – Making Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour) but I went ahead with unsprouted ones. Sprouting substantially inactivated phytic acid in the flour.

Ok, without further delay, please enjoy these healthy snacks!

Crunchy Hippy Fresh Ground Whole Wheat Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup white granular sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (Freshly ground from fresh whole wheat berries)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 cup semi-sweet bakers chocolate, broken/shaved into chunks
• 1 cup dried cranberries

 
Directions:

Set oven to 375 F

Using your wheat grinder or a dry jar on your Vita-Mix, grind your wheat berries until well ground, measure 1 cup and put into bowl. Next, grind 1 1/4 c oats, put in with ground wheat. Mix in baking powder, baking soda, salt, add dried cranberries.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, put butter, and white and brown sugar. Cream until fluffy. (2-3 mins?) Add 1 egg and your vanilla, mix well.

Sift in the dry ingredients slowly. Add chocolate shavings.

Form golf ball sized dough balls with your hands.

Put on greased parchment on cookie sheets.

Bake your first batch about 15 minutes. If you want them wetter, cook next batch less, crispier cook them longer.

[This recipe was inspired by this one but added quite a lot more crunchy hippy cred *winks*)

I have been experimenting with the dehydrator and blending, mostly modestly sweet to savory things. Today’s raw food recipe is more about the sweet. These date heavy cookies should not be eaten every day unless you are trying to gain weight.

I suggest only making as much as you will eat over a few days so that you are not storing them for a long time. They retain quite a lot of moisture even after drying overnight. I prefer them this way so that they are not crumbly.

I put them in the fridge to be extra sure.

I really enjoyed these cookies, they pack in a lot of flavor and of course they are 100% nut free!

Nika’s date coconut cookies – 100% raw & nut free

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c raw sunflower seeds
• 1/2 c raw pumpkin seeds (split)
• 5 depitted dates (dried, organic)
• 1/2 c organic coconut, medium shred
• 2 T raw unheated honey
• 1/4 c coconut juice (as needed to moisten)
• 1/8 tsp lemon juice
• pinch of sea salt

Directions:
Add all ingredients to processor and blend until seeds have broken down and a dough is formed. Without enough of the coconut juice, the mix will just go around and around in the processor bowl. Adding just enough juice allows a dough to begin to form.

Do not make it soupy though!

Use a small cookie dough scooper and portion out onto paraflexx sheets. Press the cookies a bit flat, making sure all cookies are essentially the same size/thickness.

Dehydrate at 135F for 2 hours and then turn down to 115F and allow to go overnight.

Remove after cooled and keep in cool dry place in a ziptop bag.

If you try this, let me know how it goes for you!

We made the usual sugar cookies this year but I do not have any photos, was so dark at the time and, well, who needs ANOTHER sugar cookie shot!

When shopping for cookie making ingredients, I picked up a bag of butterscotch chips without any particular plans for them. I made a couple of test sugar cookies studded with the chips but they seemed too plain. I took a peek at the recipe on the bag and found that I was latently craving oatmeal cookies, just like the ones in the bag’s recipe (amazing coincidence huh?)!

I changed the recipe to include sweetened coconut flakes because, well, they were on hand in my pantry and I love how they lend moistness.

I highly recommend these cookies. They pack a LOT of flavor and the flavor layers itself, delivering a long lasting experience. They also hold their flavor and moistness well on the counter, the few days until they are all gone. You can make them softer by not baking the full recommended period. Experiment with it.

Oatmeal Coconut Scotchies (Adapted from this recipe which you may find on your bag of Nestle Butterscotch chips)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or grated peel of 1 orange
• 3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
• 1 2/3 cups (11-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Butterscotch Flavored Morsels
• 3/4 cup Sweetened coconut flakes (I used these)

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats, coconut flakes, and morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies or 9 to 10 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

PAN COOKIE VARIATION:
Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until light brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Makes 4 dozen bars.

Have you ever noticed that your cat WILL be in the best spot for shooting? This is because they like it warm and sunny. If in doubt of where to shoot in a hurry, find your cat. We have 5 so I usually have to kick one out of the best spot. Sometimes, the cats just WON’T move.

Leo is tenacious.

Let me know if you make these and how they work out for you.

If you are a chocolate fiend, I don’t see why you can not pitch in a couple of tablespoons of powdered baking cocoa into the flour part, mix well before adding liquids.

Buen Provecho!

Those of you surfing here from Darren Rowse‘s blog – ProBlogger and specifically about my prize for the Birthday Bash, you have come to the right place!

My prize is both eye candy and mouth candy!

If you win, you will receive:

• a signed 8×10 inch print of the peppermint marshmallow puff pastry cookie you see above
• 12 freshly baked peppermint marshmallow puff pastry cookies

I pay for all costs (including making these cookies myself) except for shipping. You receive delicious cookies and a fantastic print that will last forever! I hang mine in my kitchen to inspire me when the cooking muse is getting lazy.

If you want to learn about the giveaway, visit Darren‘s ProBlogger blog and learn about the massive giveaway that currently includes some $60,000 in prizes.

I think he is breaking new ground here and it looks like a fantastic proof of concept regarding social media and Web 2.0, especially the way he does it.

Prizes will be given away over successive days and successive posts throughout each day. The first giveaway post was this morning called “The First Giveaway Begins!”

If you have any questions about my prize please do not hesitate leaving a comment below or email me at nika.boyce at gmail dot com

Technorati Tags: Darren Rowse, eye candy, candy, 8×10, peppermint marshmallow puff pastry cookie, peppermint, marshmallow, puff pastry, cookie, giveaway, Darren, blog, proof of concept, social media, Web 2.0

I am a super bad mom, I really am. Once the caffeine hit the system this morning I jumped up and baked these cookies (the dough was in the fridge overnight). The bad part is that we essentially had these for breakfast. We are going to have a second course of eggs and toast but the brutal honest truth is that we had chocolate cookies for breakfast.

Man, they are good though, especially right out of the oven.

I adapted a recipe by N. Hoff from the AllRecipes.com “Tried and True Cookies” cookbook (page 80) .

It is very different from the original recipe, which didn’t have chocolate or powdered sugar or chocolate sauce. The reason I refer to mine as hedgie cookies is because the coconut makes them a bit prickly like hedgehogs and because I think hedgies are just the cutest little things.

Here is my adaptation.

Nika’s Chocolate Coconut Hedgie Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 C AP flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 C butter
• 1/2 C packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 C white sugar
• 4 Tablespoons chocolate powder
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 C flaked sweetened coconut
• powdered sugar, as desired

Sauce:

• 4 Tablespoons chocolate powder
• 1 drop vanilla
• 1/2 cap of kahlua liqueur
• 2 Tablespoons white sugar
• boiling water, enough to make a sauce as thick or thin as you want

Directions:

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt, set aside.

Cream together butter, brown and white sugars. Make certain that it is very well mixed and that you get a light fluffy texture (you have incorporated air into the mix).

Add egg, vanilla, and chocolate powder and mix well. It will be getting thick now. Add the flour by 1/3rds. The mix will be very thick, like a dough towards the end. Don’t be shy, use your hands to knead it all together. Add the coconut flakes. You will likely need to use your hands to incorporate the coconut. Chill in the fridge (I did it over night).

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Make golf ball sized dough balls and put onto parchment.

You can dredge in powdered sugar or more coconut before baking.

Bake for about 25 minutes (your oven may be different, watch the first batch).

Dust with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce!

Kahlua Chocolate Sauce

Mix chocolate powder, sugar, vanilla, and Kahlua. Add boiling water a few teaspoons at a time, slowly. Add enough boiling water to make it the consistency you like.

Enjoy!

Here is a shot of Baby Oh who is 1) upset about not getting any cookies, 2) upset that mommy has pulled out the food photography stuff, and 3) upset that he is in that infernal bouncer.

(Poor Baby O)

Technorati Tags: caffeine, cookie, egg, chocolate, breakfast, Chocolate Coconut Hedgie Cookies, liqueur, powdered sugar, coconut, chocolate sauce, chocolate powder, sugar, vanilla, Kahlua

]]> http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/03/25/chocolate-coconut-hedgie-cookies/feed/ 7 http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/02/13/get-your-red-on-baby/ http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/02/13/get-your-red-on-baby/#comments Tue, 13 Feb 2007 13:47:08 +0000 nika http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/02/13/get-your-red-on-baby/

(This is my latest article for The Spirit World, a blog in the Well Fed Network family)

To me, Valentine’s Day is vibrant red and cinnamon flavored. Without that bright and bracing flavor, I have not really DONE Valentine’s Day. As such, I feel that anything presented as Valentine’s specific should be dark red and filled with hot cinnamon-y goodness.

Today’s Designated Driver Drink (a Well Fed Network Spirit World blog category) delivers a fantastic dose of spicy red that is sure to delight kids and kid-at-heart adults.

Big Red Cinnamon Cocktail for the kids

Ingredients:

• Big Red Soda (you can substitute Mountain Dew Code Red if you can’t get Big Red)
• 2 small boxes cherry Jello gelatin
• 1 1/4 C boiling water
• 1 drop cinnamon oil (Lorann is a good source)

Directions:

1. Put two boxes of jello gelatin into 1 1/2 C boiling hot water and mix until dissolved.
2. Add drop of cinnamon oil.
3. Pour into your favorite mold or a flat pan to set up for 3 hours in the refrigerator.
4. Cut jello into desired shape and add to a serving glass.
5. Pour soda over the top of jello and serve with other Valentine’s decadence.

If you would like a cinnamon flavored drink for the over 21 age group try a “Big Red” Cocktail. This recipe uses Cinnamon Goldschlager, a liquor that has gold flakes floating lazily about in it’s depths, a schnapps I love because its so darn pretty.

Liquid Big Red

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Goldschlager cinnamon schnapps
• 2 oz Jagermeister herbal liqueur
• 12 oz Dr. Pepper soda

Directions:

1. Pour Goldschlager and Jagermeister over ice in your most festive glass.
2. Add Dr. Pepper until it reaches the top, taking care to not let it foam the cinnamon goodness over the top.

One bit of trivia for you: The company that makes Goldschlager had to reduce the amount of gold flecks it puts into the formulation because people were having reactions to the gold, an element that is supposed to have no effect on our bodies. (see this PubMed link for studies)

Drink in moderation as this mixture is sure to go to your head in a schnapp.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Technorati Tags: Valentine’s Day

]]> http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/02/13/get-your-red-on-baby/feed/ 3 http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/02/04/local-foods-auntie-cathies-bakery-gluten-free-to-order/ http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/02/04/local-foods-auntie-cathies-bakery-gluten-free-to-order/#comments Sun, 04 Feb 2007 18:33:02 +0000 Nika http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/02/04/local-foods-auntie-cathies-bakery-gluten-free-to-order/

As you know from reading some of my previous posts (here), I live in a super tiny village called Wales in central Massachusetts USA. We do not live the fast life here; we enjoy the quiet and solitude of the woods.

One of the things I like about the people who live in this region is that they often find ways to build small businesses that keep them IN the region. I have commuted for YEARS to Boston (4 hours a day) and I now put a premium on working close to or in the home.

Cathie Albrecht, proud owner of Auntie Cathie’s Bakery

Today, I would like to introduce you to one such resident of Wales, Cathie Albrecht (shown at top). She opened Auntie Cathie’s Bakery two years ago, and she is intensely dedicated to giving her customers what they desire. One outcome of this philosophy is that she is finding ways to make just about everything she offers in her bakery all natural sugar-free, wheat-free, and gluten-free. (Note: She ships to anywhere in the continental US.)

This means that Auntie Cathies makes gluten-free:

• breads
• cakes
• cookies
• Moon pies
• pastries
• pies
• pizza dough
• wedding cakes
• and just about anything else you could imagine.

On a recent day, Cathie allowed me to take some photos of her bakery, herself, her employees, and her delicious food.

Gluten-free Lemon Pecan Coffee Cake

Outside

Moon pies – fresh – so delicious – available gluten-free! (these are conventional)

Blueberry crumble pie

Tools of the trade

Employee, focused on the work at hand

Helping customers, prepping moon pie fixings

Pulling out the moon pie cake-lets

Chatting and making moon pies

Close up of moon pie goodness

If you would like to visit our quaint New England town of Wales and this bakery specifically, click here for a map and directions. If you would like to mail-order bakery items or some of their handmade all natural soaps and other toiletries, give the bakery a call at 413-245-6235.

Auntie Cathie’s Bakery

17 Main Street (Route 19)
Wales, Massachusetts 01081-9777
cathie@auntiecathies.com

Auntie Cathie’s Web Site

Copyright © 2007 Nika Boyce All Rights Reserved

Technorati Tags: Massachusetts, USA, small business, Boston, Cathie Albrecht, , Auntie Cathie’s Bakery, sugar-free, wheat-free, gluten-free, ships, gluten, bread, cake, cookie, Moon pie, pastries, pie, pizza, dough, wedding, cake, delicious, New England, Wales, bakery, handmade, natural, soap, toiletries

]]> http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/02/04/local-foods-auntie-cathies-bakery-gluten-free-to-order/feed/ 18 http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/01/31/blood-orange-petit-fours/ http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/01/31/blood-orange-petit-fours/#comments Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:13:34 +0000 nika http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/01/31/blood-orange-petit-fours/

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have a new cookbook called “Tried and True Cookies”, recipes from AllRecipes.com contributors. There are quite a few of the old home favorites and several iterations of various types of cookie to choose from.

As I was thumbing through the book, I saw a group for lemon bars, a kind of cookie I love but have never made. I immediately thought about the blood oranges we had squeezed, the juice was not sweet but rather sour. Thus, I decided to try a lemon bar recipe with blood orange juice instead of lemon juice.

I dont know if this recipe tries true with the original formulation but for my adaptation, something is less than right. I am guessing its about acidity and how it interacts with the eggs. What happened to mine is that the filling on the top never solidified. I had to chill this a whole lot to be able to somewhat cut them up. When you do that, the butter cookie crust underneath becomes hard.

In short, I will give you the adapted recipe and show you pictures but I will also give you a warning: try this with lemon juice first to see if it works for you. If it does, move on to other juices. I have some citric acid on hand (from making some lollipops), maybe I could dope it with that to boost the acidity and better coagulate the eggs.

Blood Orange Bars (Adapted from “Bake Sale Lemon Bars” by Elaine in “AllRecipes.com Tried and True Cookies“)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C AP flour
• 2/3 C powdered sugar
• 3/4 C softened butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 C white sugar
• 3 Tblspns AP flour
• 1/4 C blood orange juice (lemon juice)
• 1/3 C powdered sugar for dusting (if you like)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C) and grease a 9×13 inch baking dish (or whatever floats your boat). [EDITED: I used a 9 inch pie plate.]
2. Combine the flour, 2/3 C powdered sugar, and butter (this is your shortbread dough), pat into bottom of the baking dish.
3. Bake the shortbread dough for 20 minutes, until a light brown, remove.
4. Whisk together the eggs, white sugar, flour, and blood orange juice until frothy. Pour over the hot baked crust.
5. Put it back in the oven for 20-25 minutes until light brown. (I found that I had to put it back in and cook until a wooden skewer came out somewhat clean, it never came out completely clean and it was getting too dark so I removed it.)
6. Allow to cool and cut. You can dust with the powdered sugar to pretty up the crunchy crackly surface.

In addition to these ingredients, I added about 1/8 tsp lemon juice and a bit of red food coloring.

Because I was not happy with the outcome, I chilled it (almost frozen) and then cut into small petit four sizes. I made a simple glaze with powdered sugar and hot water (some with red food coloring) as well as some chocolate sauce and drizzled these little cakelets. My taste testers (One is 38, one is 10 and one is 3) were 2 thumbs up and one grimace (the 3 year old). The older ones seem to think the sugar glaze (which sets up somewhat firm) added to the experience.

YMMV (your milage may vary). Let me know if you try it out.

[EDITED: After reading some of the reviews over at AllRecipes I have seen how other people are having the worst time with this recipe. I say, try a recipe from The Joy of Cooking.. I am going to look into that tomorrow because I am still craving blood orange bars that are actually edible!]

Technorati Tags: cookbook, AllRecipes.com, old home, cookie, lemon bar, formulation, acidity, eggs, solidified, adapted, recipe, petit four

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