Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles from Post Punk Kitchen. PPK is behind such cookbooks as Veganomicon (which I bought in part for the name, and I rarely buy cookbooks² ), Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, Vegan Brunch and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. Yes, my snickerdoodles were vegan. Shhhh.

What’s a “snickerdoodle”? I had to look it up because as far as I knew, a snickerdoodle is a cookie, so why not just call it a cookie?

Says Wikipedia:

A snickerdoodle is a type of sugar cookie made with cream of tartar and rolled in cinnamon sugar. It is characterized by a cracked surface and can be crisp or soft depending on preference. In modern recipes, the leavening agent is usually baking powder.

If you’re a knowledge nerd like me, and like to know about the origins of a word, here’s what Wikipedia says about the etymology of the word:

The Joy of Cooking claims that snickerdoodles are probably German in origin, and that the name is a corruption of the German word Schneckennudeln, which means “snail noodles.” A different author suggests that the word “snicker” comes from the Dutch word snekrad, or the German word Schnecke, which both describe a snail-like shape. Yet another hypothesis suggests that the name has no particular meaning or purpose and is simply a whimsically named cookie that originated from a New England tradition of fanciful cookie names. There is also a series of tall tales about a hero named “Snickerdoodle” from the early 1900s which may be related to the name of the cookie.

Mexican hot chocolate snickerdoodles are so called because of chocolate (obviously), cinnamon and cayenne. That half teaspoon of cayenne packs a punch, and I think that I’ve been using the same cayenne powder for years.

People on Twitter were curious about my cookies. They were a HIT at the party. People at work liked them.  The recipe was requested by a number of people.

I mostly stuck to the recipe with only two modifications. I already know what the mods are for the next round.

Enough of my babbling. You want the recipe, don’t you? (This is a call and response blog, didn’t you know?) Here it is:

Makes 2 dozen (I made some smaller to maximize the number)

For the topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cookies:
1/2 cup canola oil (I used 1/4 cup sunflower oil and 1/4 melted coconut oil, would have used all coconut but didn’t want to use up the jar)
1 cup sugar (I used raw cane sugar)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons almond milk (Or your preferred non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon chocolate extract (or more vanilla extract if you have no chocolate)
1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix the topping ingredients together on a flat plate. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a fork to vigorously mix together oil, sugar, syrup, and milk. Mix in extracts.

Sift in remaining ingredients, stirring as you add them. Once all ingredients are added mix until you’ve got a pliable dough.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Pat into the sugar topping to flatten into roughly 2 inch discs. Transfer to baking sheet, sugar side up, at least 2 inches apart (they do spread). This should be easy as the the bottom of the cookies should just stick to your fingers so you can just flip them over onto the baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, they should be a bit spread and crackly on top. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

**

See PPK for a video of Isa Moskowitz making them as well as Isa’s own intro. If anyone can make these gluten free, try it and send me the recipe. I’ve been meaning to buy the ingredients to make my own gluten free flour blend. The next time I make these I want to dial down the cayenne, as that was the dominating flavour for me, and add some ginger.

There you have it.

Footnotes:

¹ As I’ve said before, my “recipe file” is Google Bookmarks. A couple of years ago I did away with a huge, heavy binder of recipes, a combination of old newspaper photocopies, magazine clippings and website print outs. Despite the occasional purge it was unwieldy, arranged with dividers by topic, but no recipe index, and no way to have recipes included in multiple sections or pages with multiple recipes to span multiple sections without printing out more than one copy. It was an inefficient mess. By the time I got rid of this recipe collection method I had a second binder just for desserts, beverages and holiday recipes. The multi-month project involved seeking out recipes that I’d printed out and bookmarking them. It was worth the time and effort. Folksonomy is important when it comes to finding what you’re looking for and the ability to attach multiple tags/labels and easily search makes it a great recipe filing tool.
² See footnote 1.

Eat well, be well.

Last week at Ethiopian House when everyone thought they were too full to eat another bite I brought out dessert: Maple Oatmeal Super Cookies that I’d made two days before, Meghan’s recipe. My friends guessed what was in them and then asked for the recipe. For them and you, here it is:

(Maple Oatmeal) Super Cookies
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp pure maple syrup
3 Tbsp raw honey
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 Tbsp (30 ml) finely ground flax seeds
3 Tbsp  whole flax seeds
1 Tbs chia seeds
2 Tbs cacao nibs
2 Tbs golden berries or goji berries (optional)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp fine sea salt

• Preheat oven to 350F (180C).  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• Mix all ingredients together with hands or spoon
• Dollop about 1 Tbs worth onto cookie sheet and form into cookie shape- not too thin though as they do flatten as they cook
• Bake for about 10-12 minutes.

I made minor modifications but this time I’m not going to share them. Make the above recipe and then tweak it to your own tastes. It’s a simple recipe and the resulting cookies keep well if you can avoiding eating them all. Best stored in the fridge if you like a firmer cookie, or outside the fridge if you want a pliable cookie. Don’t be surprised if your firm cookies becomes pliable – crumbly even – after a couple of hours unrefrigerated.

Want more recipes like it? It’s in Meghan’s Healing with Superfoods Guide. Buy it! It’s only $12.

And finally, since I’m on a Sesame Street theme…

“Haircuts do not hurt, but crashing through doors is quite painful”

“That gentleman is no gentleman.”
The voice actors must have laughed through so many takes of Sesame Street.

Ten days ago Sarah posted a recipe for vegan brownies on her blog, What Smells So Good? Immediately I thought of what ingredients I had and what I needed. These were going to be made in my kitchen, no doubt.

I followed her recipe more or less. Below is her version with my modifications next to her ingredients:
*With my modifications, the nutritional information that she listed no longer applies.

High – Protein Vegan Brownies (AKA “Cadillac Brownies”)
Makes 24
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2.2 oz (10 tbsp) flour
2 oz (7 tbsp) soy flour [I used a blend of organic brown rice, soy, tapioca & arrowroot flours - it came pre-blended.]
6 tbsp unflavoured isolated soy protein powder [I used Ruth's hemp protein powder with flax and maca because I used up my rice protein powder last week and decided to give this one a shot again.]
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
¼ tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 oz (12 tbsp) cocoa powder [I used raw cacao powder]
10 oz silken tofu
4.5 oz (2/3 cup) granulated sugar [I used organic cane sugar]
7 oz (1 2/3 cup) brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla [homemade, in my case]
1/4 cup canola oil [I used coconut oil because it's healthy & I thought that the flavour would work. After pouring my melted chocolate into the batter mixture I melted the oil in the still-warm metal bowl over the still-hot water, but with no additional heat.]
1/2 cup plain soy milk [I used almond, initially using only 1/4 cup - see notes immediately below.]
2 oz (5 tbsp) miniature chocolate chips
[I also added cacao nibs as well as instant dark coffee, dissolved in 1/4 cup water - hence 1/4 cup milk. You might have a better way to incorporate coffee, such as adding ground beans to the dry ingredients.]

1. Preheat oven to 350°F, grease a 9 x 13” pan and line the bottom with parchment.
2. In a small microwave safe bowl (or in a pot over medium-low heat), gently melt the chocolate (use no higher than MEDIUM power so chocolate won’t scorch). Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, isolated soy protein powder, flaxseed, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Set aside.
4. In a food processor puree tofu, granulated sugar and brown sugar until smooth.
5. Add melted chocolate, vanilla, canola oil, and soy milk to the processor and blend in well.
6. Add the dry mixture to the ingredients in the processor. Pulse in until just incorporated, do not allow processor to run continuously.
7. Add miniature chocolate chips and pulse in briefly, just to mix in.
8. Scrape into the prepared pan, smoothing the top.
9. Bake for 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with moist crumbs (but not wet batter).
10. Cool completely in the pan before cutting and serving. Frost if desired.

Here’s what I changed about the method:
I don’t own a food processor so I used rotary beaters to cream the tofu and sugars. I added half the dry ingredients at a time, first beating with the beaters, then folding the second half with a wooden spoon. In the “olden days” they didn’t have food processors and stand mixers. When 25 minutes was up the batter still seemed raw (a knife came out with wet batter) so I put it back in for ten minutes.

What might have gone wrong:

• I fear that the hemp powder might make it taste kind of sandy. Maybe soy or rice would have been better choices.
• After plopping it into the pan I decided that the pan was too big and the batter too thick, so I transferred the mixture back into the bowl, added a few more splashes of milk and stirred after each addition, watching for consistency. Then I put it into my smaller cake pan (greasing another pan, cutting another square of parchment, dirtying another pan).

Smells awesome.

They will be tasted when cooled, this post will be updated*. Then the brownies will go to work and to one of the yoga studios.

I was tempted to make these gluten free but was afraid of doing too much experimenting. Without eggs it’s got one less thing to make it rise. It’s still got baking powder, but I suspect that it might still need the gluten. On the other hand, it would be a tasty experiment even if it ‘failed’.

Eat well, be well.

*update: They’re tasty with an intense chocolate taste, a bit crumbly but also dense. There’s something not “normal” about these and I suspect that it’s the hemp but maybe that’s all in my mind because that’s what I expected.

Update:
Now with photo. Ta dah! (I don’t excel at food photography. Perhaps I need a photographer houseboy/housegirl.)

Grover says hi.

That’s cinnamon on top.

Last month I came across Meghan’s recipe for Ultimate Healthy Cookies. I’ve now made them three times. After the first two I learned that the oven temperature could come down from 350 to 325. They burn easily. What other modifications have I made? I use a gluten-free flour blend that I bought on sale once at a natural food store. The first time I made them, and today, I used almond pulp leftover from making almond milk. The time in between I used almond meal (ground almonds).

The last two times I’ve used Ghiradhelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips. Today instead of just using apple sauce or apple puree I pureed a peach (microwaved it first, though if I had patience I’d have cooked it in the oven) and then topped it up with apple sauce. The batter seemed too thin so I put in some wheat germ, using up a bag that had been sitting in my freezer for years (oh, how I enjoy cleaning out). The raw honey I used, this brand, was actually raw honey with propolis. I bought it last week for the first time to try. I’m not a fan of the taste.

Today’s cookies [Monday's] taste too sweet and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the honey. Next time I’ll use less. I’m also wondering if all of the beneficial properties of propolis are lost when cooked.

I wish that the taste of the peach had come through in the final product but it didn’t.

I took the cookies to acquaintances and friends on Monday. All seemed to like them (or pretended to) even though they weren’t my favourite. I’ll keep working at it.

Try these cookies, and use your own modifications. Then tell me what you did and how they are.

Eat well, be well.

[Ed: Damn, I need to remember to start taking photos!]

• Recent Toronto Food Fallacies [BlogTO]

• Food, Glorious Food Myths [New York Times]

• Buckwheat flour and guar gum: Gluten-free baguettes get formulation boost [Food Navigator]

• 14 Facts about Mustard [Fooducate]

• When fast food and new media collide: Tweeting Food Truck Draws L.A.’s Hungry Crowds [NPR]

• The no-knead bread trend continues. No Need To Knead: A Simple Way To Bake Bread [NPR]
  I made a few no-knead breads last year, then lost the momentum. I was using Mark Bittman’s recipes. I bookmarked a foccacia recipe yesterday and look forward to trying it, using sundried tomatoes in place of the olives.

• Green your kitchen: How To Go Paper Towel-Less [The Kitchn]

• mmmmiso: What’s the Difference? White, Yellow, and Red Miso [The Kitchn]

I’ll eat the loaf, and I’ll experiment with bread baking again. Previously I didn’t want to go there because it seemed like too much effort and I don’t have the counter space for kneading, but starting with a no-knead, simple bread was a good introduction. I could always knead on a table. Hell, if I’m really short on space (for example, my next home has little counter space and no table) I’ll lay down some parchment paper on the back of a cookie sheet the floor and knead dough on that.

I want to try baking a challah some time.

Andrea’s attempt at chocolate espresso mousse cake:

1. The eggs were supposed to be at room temperature. I either didn’t notice that in the recipe, or I forgot.

2. Without a stand mixer, I used my Magic Bullet. If the flat blade can make whipped cream, certainly it can whip eggs and sugar until it holds its shape, right? Wrong. Not only did it not work, I shredded the rubber at the bottom of the flat blade. It wasn’t long ago that I replaced the flat blade because it had screwed off and I couldn’t fix it. Now my second flat blade is wearing out. The flat blade failed me earlier with its inability to chop chocolate. I’m starting to lose faith in this wonderful kitchen appliance.

3. While pouring warm water into the roasting pan for the bain marie (water bath, but I wanted to sound cool) I splashed some into the springform pan that held the cake. I tried blotting it with paper towel but this didn’t work.

Another note: I had trouble chopping the chocolate. Without the patience to use a regular knife I tried the Magic Bullet and a hammer. In the end I used a knife and chopped in bigger pieces than I wanted to. Photos below will document this.

And so, the cake might be more mousse than cake. The above link is the recipe I used, only I replaced some of the espresso with Kalua and it wasn’t actually espresso but strong drip coffee.

Results (as posted on Wednesday, when I’m really posting this)…

It’s more cake than mousse, which I think is what I meant to say above. It’s dense and seems like a flourless brownie. The eggs definitely needed to be whipped lighter. Also, I think I replaced too much coffee with kahlua. Almost everyone who tasted it, including an Israeli man, commented on the strong flavour.

Still tasty, but I don’t think I’d make it again without proper equipment. Too bad, because it was easy and took few ingredients. Most of the ingredients were stuff I had around the apartment, I just had to pick up more chocolate.

Photos: