Thin Mint Fudge
Remember the Cookies and Cream Fudge? Same idea, different cookies.
Whoopie Pies*
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It’s official, I’m back to counting points (if you don’t know points are, consider yourself lucky). But have no fear, I will still be making yummy treats, I just won’t be eating any as many of them, and I hope to find some tasty lower fat/calorie recipes as well. Speaking of lower fat, I first saw this recipe about six years ago when I did WW for the first time, but wasn’t as into baking back then so I never tried it. Fortunately, the recipe was just a Google search away.
These cookies were simple to make, quite good, and have a nice mild chocolate flavor (and not at all bad for two points!). And while marshmallow fluff adds a little bit of sweetness, it also caused a whole lot of problems. First, I was using my small cookie scoop to scoop the fluff on the cookies when the scoop broke. The spring popped out, it made a horrible noise, and it ended up in a few pieces. Who knew fluff was so sticky and stiff? Secondly, after adding the fluff and sandwiching the cookies, they all started to tilt (they aren’t flat after all), causing the fluff to leak out, thus making a huge mess and some ugly looking cookies. (I know WW chose fluff to help keep the fat and calorie count down, but there must be another option that won’t spread and leak. Any suggestions?)
*I understand these are not true Whoopie Pies. They are simply a Weight Watchers version of them. If you have an issue with the name, complain to Weight Watchers, not me. Thanks in advance.
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 egg white
1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk (I used buttermilk because that’s all I had in the house)
3/4 cup marshmallow cream
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
- With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the sugar, shortening and egg white in a medium bowl until fluffy and well blended (about 2 minutes).
- Stir in the flour mixture, then add the milk until just blended.
- Drop the dough (it will be a cross between cake batter and cookie dough in consistency) by spoonfuls onto large, ungreased baking sheets (I used Silpats), making 36 cookies.
- Bake until top springs back when lightly touched (5-7 minutes).
- Cool completely on the sheets on a rack.
- Spoon 2 tsp. marshmallow fluff and spread on the bottoms of half of the cookies.
- Top with remaining cookies.
Yields 18 cookies (I got 15). Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Lemon Meltaways
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I had never heard of meltaways until I read about them on my friend Jami’s blog. They sounded so light and delicious and I was all set to make her recipe until I measured out my flour and had just barely 1 1/4 cups. So off to the Internet I went, and I came across this recipe which was super easy to make.
The cookies are so light that they really do melt in your mouth. But the flavor? Just didn’t do it for me, and I found them to be really bland. I brought them into the office today and while they weren’t a hit with everyone, they did seem to attract quite a following. It seems people either love or hate these cookies. Me? I’m a hater.
Cookie Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel
Frosting Ingredients
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Preparation
Combine all cookie ingredients in large bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.
Divide dough in half. Shape each half into 8×1-inch log. Wrap each in plastic food wrap. Refrigerate until firm (1 to 2 hours).
Heat oven to 350°F. Cut each log into 1/4-inch slices with sharp knife. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until set. (Cookies will not brown.) Cool completely.
Combine all frosting ingredients in small bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until fluffy. Frost cooled cookies.
Recipe from Land O’Lakes.
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In other cookie news, Aunt Helen’s Mandelbrot recipe won a Hallmark Magazine Cookie Contest, and I got some really fun prizes!
Oatmeal Caramel Bars
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Have you ever read reviews of a five-star recipe that everyone is raving about it and then gotten excited to make it, because you know it’s going to be spectacular and your coworkers will just love it? OK good, I thought you have. But have you ever made the five-star recipe that everyone is raving about only to be incredibly disappointed and left wondering HUH? This is one of those recipes.
I took the bulk of the reviewers suggestions and implemented them only to find the end result very eh. The cookie is an ooey, gooey mess of oatmeal, too much chocolate (I know, I never thought I would utter those words either), and a thin layer of caramel. Disappointing. And I’m guessing there will be some left at the end of the workday tomorrow.
Ingredients
32 individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9×13 inch baking pan lined with foil or parchment paper. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt together the caramels and heavy cream, stirring occasionally until smooth.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. Stir in the melted butter until well blended (I used my hands). Press half of the mixture into the bottom of pan. Reserve the rest.
- Bake the crust for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Pour the caramel mixture over the top and then crumble the remaining crust mixture over everything (I used my hands to pat the mixture down).
- Return to the oven and bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until the top is lightly toasted (you may want to check it around 15 minutes). Cool then cut into squares.
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.
Caramel Fleur de Sel Macarons
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I’ve done a lot of reading about macarons and the one common theme on every food blog is that making them is hard. And yet, I still stupidly attempted them. Let’s just say I now understand why these cookies are $1.75 each–they are a huge pain to make.
I had a few different problems–cracked tops, air bubbles, no feet, and a runny filling. What I learned: The cracked tops were remedied by doubling up the baking sheets. The air bubbles could be prevented by tapping the baking sheet on the counter before letting the piped macarons rest. The no feet issue I have no idea how to solve, as some of my macarons had feet and some didn’t, and they all came from the same batter. The runny filling I attribute to lousy weighing by my cheap kitchen scale I bought years ago when I was actually weighing food and counting points. (Some of you know what points are, right?)
While these taste good, the frustration just wasn’t worth it. I think it’s safe to say the next time I have a craving for macarons, I will drive myself the three miles to Paulette in Beverly Hills.
Caramel Fleur de Sel Filling Ingredients
200 g sugar
¼ cup water
2 tbs. corn syrup
1 vanilla pod (I used two teaspoons vanilla extract)
200 g cream
5 g fleur de sel
140 g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
Macaron Ingredients
1 cup blanched almond meal
1 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
3 egg whites from large eggs.
1/4 cup white sugar
Preparation
Sieve almond meal & confectioners sugar together.
Beat egg whites until foamy on medium. Slowly add sugar, and turn to high. Beat until stiff peaks form.
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix well, until batter becomes fluid (lava like–slow moving, but moving nonetheless). Use a HUGE piping tip, and pipe onto parchment lined baking sheet. The batter should spread out to another third of its size. Also, any peaks from piping should very slowly fall back into the shape. If it stays a peak, you didn’t stir it enough.
Let the cookie sheets sit out for at least 45 minutes, as this forms the crust.
Bake at 325 for about 12-14 minutes. The macarons should be able to be removed from the paper. If they stick, something went wrong. (I experienced this on two of the four baking sheets.)
Fleur de Sel Caramel filling recipe from Veronica’s Test Kitchen.
Macaron recipe from Jess.
