Cookie Dough Bites (Homemade Candy!)

So I decided I want to add a few more new candies to the homemade candy arsenal.  We already do Double Coconut Eggs, Peanut Butter Eggs, Buttercreams in several flavors, Peppermint Patties and Cordial Cherries.  I came across a recipe for cookie dough bars the other day and thought that might be a fun addition to the list, rolled in balls and dipped in chocolate instead of cut into squares.

I picked up mini-chips and threw them together, but I thought I could taste the flour too much, so I added more vanilla and some Korintje cinnamon, since I usually double the vanilla and add a bit of cinnamon when I made chocolate chip cookies.  But it still wasn't right.  It was good, but not what I was looking for.

Last night I tried again.  I wanted something that had the texture of a buttercream and the taste of the Nestle Tollhouse dough.  I started with my buttercream recipe and added the things that make a Tollhouse cookie so distinctive - the brown sugar, vanilla and of course semi-sweet chips.

I'll probably add these to the assortment of candies I make at Christmas time.

Here we go!

1 12oz bag Mini Chips

2 sticks Butter (at room temperature)

1 cup Brown Sugar (packed)

3 cups Powdered Sugar

1/2 cup Cornstarch or Arrowroot Powder

lots of Vanilla Extract (a Tablespoon or so, to taste)

a light sprinkle of Cinnamon (optional)

Candy Melts or additional Chocolate for coating.

Cream Butter and Brown Sugar until fluffy.  Add Powdered Sugar and Arrowroot (or Cornstarch) 1/2 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly in between each 1/2 cup.  Add Vanilla and Cinnamon.  Blend again.

Add entire bag of Mini Chips.

Refrigerate 15 minutes to make dough easier to handle.  Roll into bite size pieces.  Melt Candy Melts or Chocolate according to package instructions.  Coat each piece and place on wax paper to let coating set.  Place in refrigerator to speed setting.

Enjoy!

Making, fixing, cooking, doing.

This hippy is happiest when kept busy.  I'm not always that good at prioritizing what I NEED to do over what I WANT to do, fun often wins out over responsibility until the last possible minute, but I'm getting stuff done.

One of the things I've been trying to do, since I need to do some serious downsizing in the next few months, has been to pare down the things I've accumulated in the kitchen.  Dry goods that I rarely use, but somehow have 3 tubs of, spices that I have duplicates of, more frozen fruit than I could eat in a month, that kind of stuff.

My close friend, and fellow hippy, Mikey has been enjoying the fruits of this quite a bit, sometimes literally. Like right now, I'm making a berry topping for when have breakfast for dinner on Friday.  He's gotten most of my duplicate spices, and we've cooked a couple of meals from stuff I just happened to have laying around.

Tonight, after painting a bit, and taking the orange cat for a walk in the park, I used some leftover blackberries that I froze after a trip to Trader Joe's last month, and the last of the dried jalapenos that Carl didn't want, even though they were his, and made Blackberry Jalapeno Sauce.

Yesterday, I made raisin bark with some millet that needed to be used, leftover semi-sweet chips from a batch of my Miracle Max's Death Pills, and a little bit of cayenne and most of the Himalayan Pink Salt I had laying around.

Tomorrow there will likely be no cooking because I have plans for a bike ride with my mom, but you never know!

Miracle Max's Death Pill

1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Flax Meal
1/2 cup Hull Hempseeds
2 Tbsp Chia Seeds
1/2 Tbsp Hawaiian Spirulina

Optional: Baking chocolate or candy melts for coating (about 9 oz.)

Mix everything but the chocolate until it's an even consistency and weird green color!

Roll into balls and dip in melted chocolate (follow instructions on the package for melting)

Makes about 20.

Keep refrigerated because of the flax meal and hempseeds.

Enjoy!

Check-in. Healthier Choices.

I've lost nearly a pants size!

We're learning a lot about ourselves through this whole get healthy process. Here's the highlights!

• I feel like a little kid when I'm flying down a hill on my bike!
• If we have Edy's Fruit Bars or Whole Fruit Bars in the freezer, they're nearly always our first choice when we go for a snack.
• The fruit bars have also cut down on Carl's ice cream cravings, while making giving up dairy easier for me.
• Keeping chocolate in the house, but somewhere that's a pain to get to, has cut down on chocolate binges for both of us, and has almost completely eliminated my urges to buy a candy bar at the check-out.
• Pita chips have solved my issue with not being able to substitute crunchy for crispy.
• The 5 mile round trip to work on my bike seems to be what I need to be able to sleep well.
• I have a lot of fun battling traffic on my bike. Although I still walk it across the 22 interchange on my way to work.

All in all, I think that we're making a lot of change for the better and Carl is even starting to make plans for what he's going to do to make up for the fact that he can't really bike to work even if he wanted to.

Check-In. That was a really bad idea, apparently.

Breakfast was the Florentine Omelet from Nick's Diner. Loads of spinach and tomato, with a little feta cheese.

Mid-morning snack was more almonds, like always.

For a treat after my civil service exam, I got a Chai Latte with Soy milk from Starbucks! Yay for me.

Late lunch was the Biancaneve Pizza at Paese Mio, plus spinach. It's a white pie with tomato, garlic and olive oil. However, apparently I can't handle the mozzarella cheese anymore! I've been sick all night. :-(

I finally felt up to having dinner and I had Chocolate Cheerios with plain Almond milk. Yay!

I also made tons of trial mix tonight for snacks over the course of the week.

The Hippy's Energy Bark

I love this stuff. It's an amped up, salty-sweet, crunchy-chewy, kick in the pants version of Almond Bark!

Here's what you need, but I'm warn you, some of the measurements are kinda fast and loose.

• 16 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate (I use Baker's - it's cheap and good quality)
• 2 oz Whole Almonds (46 almonds or a handful)
• 1 hand-full of 3 out of 4 Dried Cherries, Dried Cranberries, Dried Currants or Raisins. (remember, you only need 3 of these)
• 1 hand-full plus some Roasted Salted Sunflower kernels
• 2 Tbsp Chia Seeds
• 2 Tbsp Poppy Seeds
• 2 Tbsp Teff (I use brown, I don't think Ivory would make a different in this recipe)
• 2 Tbsp Hulled Hemp Seed
• 2 Tbsp Hawaiian Spirulina Powder (if you can't find a jar of Powder, get the capsules and open them up.

Melt the chocolate by you preferred method (microwave at 1/2 power or double boiler). Add the larger ingredients plus the Spirulina, stir until coated. Add the little stuff, stir until coated. Press flat in a wax paper lined cookie sheet or right on the table. The almonds will prevent you from pressing too thin.

Refrigerate until chocolate is set up. Break into smaller pieces. Enjoy. Store in the refrigerator because Hemp Seed can go rancid pretty easily at warmer temperatures.

About this stuff.
Because of the abundance of seeds and the spirulina, this bark has well over 100 different nutrients including Omega 3 and 6. The chia helps your body hold on to hydration. Almonds are great for you. The darker the chocolate, the more anti-oxidants it has and the more capabilities it has as a natural anti-inflammatory. The spirulina gives a natural energy boost. It's got lots of protein to help keep you full.

Plus, it's chocolate!

More cocoa recipes. (pt 2)

Oh, my. Mocha Cocoa

combine:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp powdered vanilla
• 2 packets Starbucks Via Extra Bold Italian Roast
  

in a mixing bowl.

To enjoy, mix 2-3 Tablespoons into 1 cup of hot water or milk.

Just a heads up, if you're sensitive to caffeine this cocoa packs a bit of a kick. You might consider using the Decaf Via instead of the Italian Roast.

More cocoa recipes.

Plain Jane Classic Cocoa

combine:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• 1 Tbsp powdered vanilla
  

in a mixing bowl.

To enjoy, mix 2-3 Tablespoons into 1 cup of hot water or milk.

My friend Ann told me she doesn't like fancy cocoa, and it occurred that I never posted the basic recipe that all my fancy cocoas start with.

I spent my snow day on Cocoa (pt 3)

Candy Cane Cocoa

combine:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• 2 Tbsp finely crushed (almost to powder) peppermint candy

in a mixing bowl.

To enjoy, mix 2-3 Tablespoons into 1 cup of hot water or milk.

Crush your candy canes or starlight mints in a coffee grinder, or food processor to get to a powder quickly. I did mine with a mortar and pestle and it took forever. (My coffee grinder make everything taste like cloves from using it to grind spices a few too many times.)

I spent my snow day on Cocoa (pt. 2)

Gingerbread Cocoa

combine:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• 1/4 cup Sugar in the Raw (crushed to powder)
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp powdered vanilla

in a mixing bowl.

To enjoy, mix 2-3 Tablespoons into 1 cup of hot water or milk.

Sugar in the Raw comes as rather large crystals and will need to be crushed down somewhat for this recipe to make sure it dissolves completely. It's added for it's molasses content and could be replaced with superfine sugar without sacrificing much taste.

I get my powdered vanilla at Kitchen Krafts in Quakertown.

I spent my snow day on Cocoa

First off, any day spent creating and sampling homemade gourmet hot cocoa recipes, automatically qualifies as awesome. Plus the snow was gorgeous and hubby was home to share it all with me. Or I should say, I was home to share it with him. It's unusual for me to have a Saturday off.

Anyway, here's the cocoa recipes.

Deep Dark Cocoa


Combine

• 1/2 cup dark cocoa
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar
• 1 Tbsp powdered vanilla
• 2 Tbsp grated dark chocolate (70% or so cacao)

in a mixing bowl.

To enjoy your cocoa, mix 2-3 Tablespoons in 1 cup of hot water or milk.

I like to use the side of the grater normally used for cheese to grate my chocolate. Something like Ghirardelli's Twilight Delight (72% cacao) works great for this.

If you're local to the Allentown area, I got my powdered vanilla that Kitchen Krafts down in the Quakertown Farmer's Market (Q-Mart) I haven't seen it anywhere else.

A very tasty fix, and a not quite so tasty one.

So, since the doctor has nothing helpful to say about my allergies at this point other than "if you find something that works, stick with it," I'm pretty much willing to try anything. Yesterday, I saw an article in Woman's World that recommended Stinging Nettle as an alternative to things like Claritin and Zyrtec. So, I stopped at Sign of the Bear today to pick some up and we'll see how it goes.

This is where I'm at for allergy fixes.

Claritin - useless unless I take 3, then I can't function
Zyrtec - useless if I take if more than 2 days in a row
Allegra - works, but makes me unconscious
Benedryl - makes me groggy AND gives me night terrors (that's an awesome combination)
Clarinex - way too expensive for what little relief it provides
Xyzal - helped a bit, but nothing significant enough to be bothered with the Rx.
Flonase - useless except for when I'm severely congested
Alavert - see Claritin
Astelin - doesn't stay in my sinuses no matter what I do, therefore not helpful

Sinus rinses have helped a lot so far, but not enough. So the new plan is all natural - Stinging nettle once a day and sinus rinses as needed.

Now, the tasty fix - in order to keep exercising the way I need to, I need to keep my asthma and knee pain under control. My asthma's basically under control, that is, I rarely if ever need my rescue inhaler and we decided to take me off of the maintenance meds (Singulair) because I didn't seem to need them since I lost a little bit of weight.

My knee on the other hand, goes in spells, related to both the weather and my level of activity. Here's where the tasty fix comes in. Chocolate is a natural anti-inflammatory! The darker the better, it needs to be at least 70% cacao to work. Dagoba Chocolate makes a bar called Eclipse - 87% cacao - which I love! So, I'm going to be adding Extra Dark chocolate to my daily routine. (don't twist my arm!)

Wish me luck.