Just a Mom, HA!

Mini Peanut Butter Cookies (Gluten Free)

I’m about to show you a cookie that is flour-less, butter-less, and that boasts only 4 ingredients in its batter. Brace yourself:

Huh. I was a little surprised myself.  This is a normal looking little cookie – not what I’ve come to expect from gluten-free baking.  Sadly I made these when I was so sick that I lost my sense of taste completely, so I can’t tell you how they are straight out of the oven, but I will say that their texture improves with time and their taste on day 2 is very scrumptious.

Mini Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
(Slightly Modified from Spark Recipes)

• 1 c Peanut Butter* (works best with natural PB, reduced-fat, low sodium, that kind)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• Milk chocolate chips, if desired

Combine first 4 ingredients and stir until well combined.  Use a rounded teaspoon to scoop dough onto a cookie sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper for easy removal).  Bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes, remove from oven, stick one or two chips into the cookie tops, then return cookies to oven one final minute of baking.  Let cookie sit on baking sheet to cool then remove them to a rack.

*Kim’s notes: I’d love to try this recipe again with natural Almond Butter.  Also, if you aren’t a fan of chocolate, skip the chips and criss-cross the dough balls with fork tongs for a more classic PB cookie look.

Banana Oat Cookies

This is actually another semi-healthy cookie recipe.  The banana flavor pounds your taste buds, the oats give it substance, and with only 3 Tbs of butter (I used a light spread) there isn’t too much to be guilty about…

UNLESS (dun dun duuuuhhhh)….

You take them to the next level by adding chocolate chips and crushed up Reese’s pieces (in Easter colors).

These cookies are pretty ugly, but that’s their only negative – they’re soft, moist, and flavorful. At the end of the day, there was only 4 left which I think says plenty about their flavor.

Banana Oat Cookies
(adapted from Spark Recipes)

• 3 Tbs butter, softened (I used light spread)
• 1 mashed ripe banana
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 c. flour
• 1 c. quick oats
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2/3 c. mix in’s (in the pictured cookies I used mini chocolate chips and crushed Reese’s pieces, but to be healthy you could use some raisins, chopped nuts, blueberries, whatever suits your tastes)

Combine all wet ingredients and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl.  Add dry ingredients and stir well. Add mix in’s and blend until evenly distributed.  Spoon cookies out onto cookie sheets (I baked mine on parchment paper) in about tablespoon sizes, not too big.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Cookies will be soft, cool on baking sheet and then on wire racks.  Makes close to 2 dozen.

Happy Cooking!

Surprise Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are healthy.  That means a somewhat odd texture, but a taste that’s just about normal.

If that doesn’t weird you out then keep reading.

Did you spot the surprise ingredient?  That would be a chickpea.  A garbanzo.  Otherwise known as a bean.

I got this recipe from my friend the Trainer Mama.  I didn’t do much to her recipe, just used regular flour since that’s all I had, and added a few of my own touches to the dough-making process.

Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies

• 1 c. brown sugar
• 3/4 c. sugar free applesauce
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
• 2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 c. flour (she uses whole wheat, I used all-purpose)
• 1/2 c. rolled oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt (I would only add this if you’re using no-salt beans, canned beans have TONS of sodium)

I found that the cookies tasted most like cookies when the beans were mashed – if you don’t mash them then the occasional bite just tastes like a bean.  To mash I warm the beans up a little first then mash with my hands and a potato masher.  They will be flaky, but that’s normal.

Add all wet ingredients and sugars to the mashed beans and blend together.  Next add the dry ingredients and stir well to form the dough.  Lastly stir in the chocolate chips.

Bake on parchment paper or a lightly sprayed cooking sheet at 350 degrees for 11 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks.  Store in an air tight container and can be frozen to make them last longer.

*Since these are a low-cal sweet treat, I have a small bag that I keep in the freezer for when I need an emergency dessert that won’t ruin my healthy day.  I even like them cold and straight from the freezer since that makes the odd/chewy texture less noticeable.

I was worried my boys wouldn’t like these and I’d have to end up eating them all by myself, but they really surprised me.  Jay and Cee both gobbled them up like regular cookies…

Sometimes it can be a little hard to get the shot I want when cookies are involved.

Happy Cooking!

Molasses Ginger Cookies

Oh this is a beautiful cookie:

Whenever there’s a cookie recipe that calls for less than a stick of butter but yields up to 4 dozen cookies, I’m there.  This gem came from the Better Homes and Gardens website and is everything that I’m looking for in a cookie – chewy, sweet, and around 50 calories.

The boys loved them too.  I was worried that Cee wouldn’t be on board with such a strong flavor, but he loved them, begged for them… probably ate about half of them.

One negative thing that I will say is that rolling the dough balls was a long and messy process – the flavor is worth it, but this isn’t a simple, throw-together cookie.

Molasses Ginger Cookies (from Better Homes and Gardens, slightly adapted)

• 1/3 c. margarine, softened
• 2/3 c. packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. dark molasses
• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Half-the-Butter Oatmeal Cookies

I love cookies. LOVE them!  Growing up with my parents, how could I not?  My mom is a cookie artist and my Dad is a Cookie Monster.  What I don’t love are the cookies that are SO buttered that they leave grease behind on your fingers or napkin.

Here’s a little secret – you can half the butter on LOTS of cookie recipes.

I even used low-cal butter.

That being said, the flavor was perfect.  Not too sweet, smooth inside and slightly crisp on the outside.  Fierce.

Half-the-Butter Oatmeal Cookies

• 1/4 c. butter/margarine, softened (I used light Blue Bonnet)
• 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
• 1/4 c. white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 c. flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 c. quick oats
• 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used the mini-chips and they were great)

Cream together the soft butter, brown sugar, white sugar, egg, and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients all at once, then stir until well blended.  Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets.  Bake at 325 for 13 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet, then transfer for racks.  Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Happy Cooking!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip [Cake Batter] Cookies

It’s the season for pumpkin cooking!  I’ve got two pumpkin recipes for you this week, but since it’s getting late I’m just going to start with the easier of the two.

I get a lot of traffic to this site because of my recipe for Cake Batter Cookies – they’re easy, they’re delicious, you can really cut a lot of the fat, and they lend very well to add-ins.  One of my favorite variations of this recipe is to take spice cake mix and change it into pumpkin cookies!  This is a big fav for Jay too, so when I had some spare pumpkin lying around after a dinner I hosted last week, I knew that the time had come for this:

Hold me back from the cooling racks, I seriously have little restraint around these bad boys.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip [Cake Batter] Cookies

• 1 box spice cake mix
• 1 c. canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix, they are typically sold side by side)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 c. canola oil, applesauce, or a combo of both (I’ll fill my measuring cup most of the way up with natural applesauce, then just top it off with the oil – you can cut the oil completely, but I find that it adds a little extra weight and moisture to the cookies.)
• 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix first 5 ingredients together in a big bowl – I find that a hand mixer works well for this, but by hand gets the job done too.  Once blended and lumps are out of batter, fold in chocolate chips.  If not using oil, spray your cookie sheets before scooping dough to prevent sticking.  Bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes.

Happy Cooking!

Mama D’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

My mom is a lot of things – you might say she’s the epitome of “Just a mom? HA!”  Among her traits and talents she happens to be a world class cookie maker (at least in the eyes of her family and friends).  These cookies have been bringing my family happiness and good luck for years, and now I’m passing the recipe on to you.  When I told my mom that I was going to take her recipe public she said, “Be sure to tell them how I halved the fat from the original recipe.”  See where I get it. : )

Mama D’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 stick margarine, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• ¾ c. sugar
• ¾ c. packed brown sugar
• 2 ½ c. flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Stir together margarine, sugars, eggs, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.  Add flour and baking soda and stir thoroughly. (My mom always sifts them in, but if you don’t have a sifter that’s ok – you may just need to add a little water to moisten the dough if the unsifted flour makes it too dry.)  Add chocolate chips and stir to mix them in evenly.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees.

The baking time is my mom’s big secret.  She doesn’t like hard or overdone cookies, so she bakes hers for only 7 minutes, then sets them on top of the stove to continue warming/cooking for about 3 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

When I make these cookies Jay prefers that I cook them a little longer, so I let them go 9-11 minutes, then do the same cooling method my mom uses.

Here’s the side by side comparison:

My mom’s cookies are done when there’s just a little browning on the edges.  They are very chewy and go great in the freezer because they are still soft right out of the cold.  My cookies are done when there’s coloring on the edges and on the top cookie peaks.  Mine are better right out of the oven, but aren’t as chewy.

Happy Cooking!

Cake Batter Cookies

My friend Betty introduced me to these gems while I was on bed rest. Take any flavor of cake mix, add a few simple ingredients, use some imagination for flair and BOOM, you’ve got delicious, super soft, homemade cookies. Since the spring, I’ve done these cookies as triple chocolate, chocolate peanut butter chip, chocolate mint chip, cinnamon sugar, and even pumpkin chocolate chip! I think my favorite though would have to be lemon cookies with a powdered sugar dusting.

Cake Batter Cookies

• 1 box cake mix
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup oil, natural applesauce, or a combination of the two

Mix all ingredients together, add whatever’s your heart’s desire, then bake at 350 until done (about 11 minutes in my oven).

*Some tips – when not using oil, you should lightly grease your cookie sheet or use parchment paper to avoid sticking. I  make sure I have a very hard, thin plastic spatula and I remove the cookies promptly.  I’m usually not a stickler for brands, but they do turn out best with Super Moist cake mix and not the generics.

These cookies are awesome and by substituting the applesauce for the oil you have a healthier alternative to homemade cookies. The possibilities with them are endless, so try new things with them and enjoy!

UPDATE:

Over the past week I made chocolate cake batter cookies with peanut butter ribbons.  Make chocolate cake batter according to my recipe, then add two spoonfuls of PB and use forks to cut the PB through the batter.

I was so pleased with them that I took some pics:

This I made these as well:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifles!

Break up cookies, layer vanilla pudding, broken Butterfinger crisp candies, and cool whip.  Amazing!