Friday, January 27, 2012 at 07:13 AM
Welcome to Cooking With Catherine Katz! If you haven’t tried one of Catherine’s recipes yet, today is the day! Every recipe she gives me is simply amazing. These Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies are to die for. And they are so easy.
Catherine (second from right in this photo of Gorgeous Katz’s) is married to NuVal visionary, Dr. David Katz. Together they have 5 (count ‘em!) children.
It’s hard to believe that Catherine and I have been collaborating on this blog/recipe project for almost 2 years now. Where does the time go? Anyway, she always seems to send me the perfect recipe. This time was no exception.
This cookie recipe has only 4 ingredients! Actually, Catherine informed me that the original recipe called for baking soda and salt, but that she eliminated them to make it more nutritious. She’s absolutely right. You don’t need those ingredients.
Ingredients
3 cups Almond Meal/Flour (NuVal score of 77)
6 Tablespoons canola oil (NuVal score of 24)
6 Tablespoons agave nectar (NuVal score of 1)
3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (NuVal score of 8).
This was my first time buying almond meal/flour. To keep the product fresher longer, it is suggested that you store it in the refrigerator.
I’ve had this agave nectar for a while. I was glad to put it to some use!
Directions
Measure the 4 ingredients into a bowl and mix them together.
So easy!
Bake on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 350 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes.
I found that 9 minutes was the magic number for my oven.
These were ooey, goeey and perfect! And they keep fresh for days. We made these on a Sunday and they still tasted just as good by Thursday. (It was kind of amazing that we still had some left!) They are soooooo good. You have to try this recipe!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cookies, Cooking with Catherine Katz
Tags: Almond Flour, Bob's Red Mill, Cookies
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 07:16 AM
Have you ever been to a cookie swap? We go to a fabulous cookie swap with our “college friends” every December. The basic idea of a cookie swap is this: you make a large batch of one type of cookie and you come home with the same number of cookies, except they are all different varieties. Get it?
So, for this cookie swap that we went to (no one below 5 feet tall allowed at this swap, by the way), there were 15 couples. We were tasked with bringing 15 boxes or bags containing 5 cookies in each bag.
There are my 15 bags ready to go…
And I came home with this!
Now, I love to bake. And I love to make intricate, labor-intensive cookies. But at this time of year, our schedule is a week bit over-booked.
There’s a Christmas tree to get…
and decorate…
An advent wreath to light and celebrate…
our Elf, Herby, to move each night…
and parties, parties, parties!
And despite the madness, I like to make sure that we’re sitting down to nutritious family dinners on most nights.
So, when I saw this recipe for Anise Refrigerator Cookies in the Boston Globe Magazine, back in November, I saved it.
It caught my eye for three reasons:
- I love anise
- It had few ingredients (simple is good)
- After you roll the logs, all you do is slice and bake (Yes!!!!)
I’m not saying that these cookies are nutritious. If you are looking for a recipe for a lighter cookie, check out my post on Espresso Crinkles from Cooking Light. What I’m saying about this recipe is that it’s quick and easy. If you choose this recipe, you will have time to go for a run or head to the gym because you won’t be in your kitchen decorating cookies!
Ingredients
1¾ cups all-purpose flour (NuVal score of 67 for King Arthur All Purpose UnBleached Flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon anise seeds
Salt
1 cup sugar (NuVal score of 1)
8 tablespoons vegetable shortening, softened (Crisco Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening, NuVal score of 2)
1 large egg (NuVal score of 33)
Directions:
Whisk flour, baking powder, anise seeds, and ¼ teaspoon salt together in a bowl.
In a large bowl, beat sugar and shortening together with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes.
Beat in egg until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down bowl and beaters as needed.
Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add flour mixture until just combined.
Transfer dough to clean counter and roll into a 9-inch log about 1½ inches in diameter. (Note: I made 3 batches of this recipe so that I would yield enough cookies for the swap.)
Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 400 degrees. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Slice dough into ¼-inch-thick rounds and transfer to prepared sheets, spaced about 1½ inches apart. Bake cookies until edges are lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking.
Let cookies cool on sheets for 3 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely before serving.
These cookies were yummy! If you like a traditional, Italian cookie (one that goes well with coffee) then this cookie is for you. Watch the cookies and that time carefully while baking so that they don’t brown too quickly.
Happy Weekend Everybody!
Question of the Day
Have you ever hosted (or been to) a cookie swap?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Christmas Cookies
Tags: Cookie Swap, Cookies, Holidays
Friday, January 14, 2011 at 07:24 AM
Happy Friday Blog Fans! My friend Tina, who is running her first-ever marathon in Phoenix, Arizona this weekend (go Tina!) has a tradition of Cookie Friday. Every Friday, she treats herself to a big cookie. In keeping with her tradition, I thought today would be a great day to show you the adventure I had this week with my kids in the kitchen making Whole-Grain Chocolate Chunk Cookies.
I found this recipe in last Sunday’s Boston Globe Magazine.
I was attracted by this headline:
and this picture
As Tina would say, Holy Yum!
Turns out, this recipe is from a new book coming out on January 15th. It’s called The Cleaner Plate Club.
And from the looks of the recipes featured in this magazine spread, the authors of The Cleaner Plate Club and I are preaching similar messages, such as:
I want to meet the two Moms who wrote The Cleaner Plate Club (Beth Bader and Ali Benjamin). I think they would be fans of NuVal and ABBG, don’t you?
So, Wednesday – just before dinnertime – as 15 inches of snow was barreling down on us in eastern Massachusetts, I gathered my children, for some cookie-baking.
We rounded up the ingredients. Amazingly, we had everything in house – except we did not have chocolate chunks. But our dark chocolate chips worked just fine!
For the exact ingredients and directions, click on the recipe here.
This recipe has some great trade ups from traditional chocolate chip cookie recipes. For example:
- Instead of Unbleached All Purpose Flour (NuVal Score of 67), this recipe calls for Whole-Wheat Pastry Flour (NuVal score of 91 for Bob’s Red Mill – my favorite!)
- The Quick-Cooking Oats (not typically found in a chocolate chip cookie recipe) score a 57on the NuVal scale
- Typically you would see about 1 stick of butter in a chocoalte chip cookie recipe. This only called for 2 Tablespoons! (Land O’Lakes unsalted sweet butter scores a 2 on the NuVal scale)
- Typically, you wold not see peanut butter in a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, so adding Teddie Smooth Unsalted, with a NuVal score of 49, packs in some nutrition
- For the most part, dark chocolate scores higher than milk chocolate on the NuVal scale. These Ghiradelli chips that we used score an 8, while the Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips only score a 3.
I always say that it doesn’t matter what you make – what’s important is that you get your kids into the kitchen to teach them some basic cooking skills.
Like measuring dry ingredients:
and sticky ingredients
Thank goodness for my old friend, the Pampered Chef All Measure Cup for measuring out the Teddie Smooth!
And stirring is good exercise when you’re all cooped up inside during a Blizzard!
The recipe does warn you – the batter is very thick!
And we used our Pampered Chef Large Scoop to form 30 cookies. I love it when recipes are right on! This really makes exactly 30 cookies!
We used placed them on parchment-lined cookie sheets and baked them at 375 degrees for exactly 12 minutes. Perfect! In fact, 11 minutes may have been even better. I’m still learning how to use my new oven.
The smelled so good. But we had dinner to eat (Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore) before we could dig in. Let’s just say, my kids ate their dinner very quickly that night!
The Verdict?
I highly, highly recommend this recipe! If you are tired of some of the same-old, same-ole chocolate chip cookie recipes, why not trade up for some more nutritious ingredients and see what your kids think? My kids loved them and I think they took pride in them because they made them. I brought some in to my colleage Rob at work (and he would tell me if they stunk – he is all about taste) and he gave them the two-thumbs up. Bring them to your next school function, and you can be known as a Hip Healthy Mom. I am really looking forward to this new cookbook!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cookies, Cooking with Kids
Tags: Cookies, Cooking with Kids
Monday, August 16, 2010 at 07:18 AM
Welcome to Cart Confessions, a frequent feature here at A Better Bag of Groceries, when I ‘fess up that, hey, I’m no Super-Mom and sometimes often some less-than-nutritious products end up in my shopping cart. I have to tell you that I don’t make this stuff up. Many people in my hometown know that I write ABBG and know me as the teacher of Boot Camp and Pilates classes, so there are times when I’m covering certain products up in my shopping cart lest I bump into someone while grocery shopping! When I found out the NuVal score on these Late July cookies, I found that these were one of those products.
I blame my 7-year-old son for this one. He first spied these at Stop & Shop about a year ago – in a snack pack. He is born on the 4th of July and he just loves his July birthday and anything at all to do with the month of July, so he asked if he could get these cookies as a special treat. I looked at the label. Lots of great health claims:
- 2 g whole grain per serving
- anti-oxidants
- processed without dangerous pesticides
- no trans-fat or high fructose corn syrup
- no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives
I figured they must be at least a little bit more nutritious than a regular cookie, right? No. They score an 8 on the NuVal scale. They get the same score as a Double Stuff Oreo. A Keebler Chips Deluxe Soft and Chewy Cookie with a score of 12 would be a better choice.
Can I just add here that I paid over $4 for this box at Shaw’s? Crazy.
Bottom line. A cookie that you buy in the “Healthy” section of your grocery store is still a cookie.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cart Confessions, Cookies, Uncategorized
Tags: Cookies, Uncategorized
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 06:50 AM
Welcome to Trade Up Tuesday, a super day to visit A Better Bag of Groceries, because I talk about Trade-Ups I’ve made since learning about NuVal and I give away something for free. Today, in the spirit of Mother’s Day (which I personally think should last a week!) I put together a lovely little gift that I know I would like to receive: Cookies and Chocolate!
When it comes to dessert, cookies and chocolate are the things that I crave the most. I’m really not a cake person. My lack of desire for cake makes me feel like I’ve been given some sort of gift in the Craving Department. I easily say no to cake. Especially yellow or white cake with sickeningly sweet frosting. Bleeech! I don’t love it and I turn it down just about every time. Good thing because I feel like at least once a week there is an occasion where I’m offered a piece of cake. No thanks! Same thing holds true for sugary candy (Twizzlers, jelly beans, Swedish Fish). It’s just not my Go To treat.
That being said, I do love a treat once in a while, but for me they usually are in the form of a cookie or dark chocolate. The cookies and dark chocolate that I’m giving away today are the highest scoring of the bunch.
Cookies, as you can guess, do not get the same high NuVal scores as do something like Fruit. The scores for cookies range from 1 – 40, and the average score for a cookie is a 7. These Kashi TLC Oatmeal Raisin Flax cookies are the highest cookie we’ve scored so far at NuVal. They get a 40. Kashi does make a version of this cookie where they throw in some dark chocolate, but those cookies only get a 24. Bummer!
Dark chocolate is something that I absolutely cannot resist. Even if it’s just a few dark chocolate chips, I have a little bit every day. I remember the moment when I was reviewing the scores on the shelf at a Price Chopper supermarket (how cool that I get to do that as part of my job!) and I found out that this chocolate bar got a score of 21! Most of the other dark chocolates I’ve seen get scores below 10, so when I saw that, I was in heaven!
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky commenter will receive these High Scoring Treats and a NuVal t-shirt. All you need to do is leave a comment below, telling me about a Trade-Up you’ve made since learning about NuVal. If you haven’t made one yet, check out this blog or Trading Up Downtown for ideas. You can also check out sample scores on the NuVal site. I will choose one winner at random at 7 am EDT time Wednesday. Good luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cookies, Kashi, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Cookies, dark chocolate, Kashi
