It’s that time of year. You know the one — when weird people like me go in search of sprouted spelt flour, agave syrup, palm sugar and other healthy and low-gluten substitutes so that even my food sensitive kid can indulge in a few holiday goodies. Yes, even I am involved in a holiday cookie swap, with my wonderful girlfriends who bake with all of the weird stuff too, just so Owen can eat cookies. Mark that on your list of “things a good friend does for you.” I know I have!
I’ve been scouring the internet for cookie recipes and I know in the next few weeks I’ll be making several of them, but for my cookie swap recipe, I’ve decided on these cran-crackle bars. Of course I’ll use agave and brown rice syrup instead of the corn syrup, spelt pretzels for the pretzel twists, palm sugar instead of brown sugar and the healthiest white chocolate I can find. Yes, they’ll still taste good! Now stop berating me and take a look at these other cookie recipes I found.
Black forest cookies – Martha Stewart, I want to hate you for all that you stand for — how inadequate you make the average woman feel, your focus on the material things in life… but then you go and create another fabulous cookie recipe that makes me want to wash your feet with my hair or something slightly less weird but equally stalker-ish.
Heidi Swanson never lets me down, and I don’t even want to hate her, but I’m just not picturing the taste and texture of shortbread melding with shredded carrots and apples to make apple and carrot shortbread. What do you think — would that work?
It’s OK, because she’s definitely redeemed herself with these sparkling ginger chip cookies…. You know that I think chocolate pretty much goes with everything, but combined with something as luscious as ginger cookies? Heidi, you’re my hero once more.
Did you drool a little when you saw that picture of the peanut butter cookies at the top of the post? Yeah, I did too. Imagine how happy I was to find the recipe right under the picture on Flickr? And, they’re made with agave syrup too — thanks norwichnuts!
Tart cherry cheddar squares … what do you think? I’m thinking yum, because the combination of fruit and cheese is historically amazing almost any way you slice it. I’m thinking less sugar, all-fruit preserves, sprouted spelt flour and organic butter and cheese and I’ve actually got a healthy-recipe-in-disguise.
There’s no question in my mind that I’ll be making these cardamom snaps this season. I love ginger snaps and I love cardamom, so this one’s a no-brainer.
White chocolate candy cane drops are not your average cookie with chips and candy cane chunks added in for good measure. No, these cookies have white chocolate melted right into the batter … how rich and luscious can you get?
I hope you noticed how hard I tried to not share a bunch of chocolate cookie recipes with you. I rose above my cravings and tried to present a well-rounded group of cookies that even appealed to the chocolate lover without a particular sweet tooth. What cookies will you be making this holiday season?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Dec 14, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
