Tahini Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is going to sound very bad.

It’s going to make me sound selfish. Childish. Pathetic . Unworthy of sympathy…Are you ready for it?

…I like to wallow in my own bad feelings sometimes.

Just sit there and cry. A long cry, a woe-is-me, the world-is-ending, good-buddha-make-the-bad-things-go-away wail. I think about bad things. Sad things. I think about it so I cry harder. I self-pity. I hold myself. I stare at the light in my empty room and watch the little dust flecks float, pretending I’m in a Sofia Coppola film about women finding themselves, appreciating the beauty of the simple things. I wonder why nobody knows I’m hurting and why nobody is trying to comfort me. Such self-loathing.

It’s quite embarrassing behaviour. But also very satisfying.

Then again, I try to tell myself that I am justified  to feel my emotions. I’m working with kindergarteners right now and I am always fascinated by how much they feel their emotions. When they are happy, they are fully ecstatic. When they are sad, they are sobbing messes of green boogers and clear tears. We hold back, eh?

Sometimes, I get up, brush my pants off, and move forward. At other times, it’s a little harder.

Anywho. Have a cookie. I used whole grain flour. And there are other odd things like tahini in here. The best chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made—huzzah!

Tahini Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe by Food Fitness Fresh Air

Molasses Cookies

You know what? The pictures on this blog do not convey how I actually bake or cook or eat my food. The picture above seems to convey the idea that I like to eat my cookies while reading a magazine and drinking a cuppa tea.

In reality, although I do eat while reading/watching TV/studying etc. ,  I would never use napkins or plates when I can get away with my hands. And tea? Can’t wait. Too busy burning my hands while shoveling still-hot cookies straight from the cookie sheet to my mouth. I can wipe my dirty hands on my shirt.

I don’t pour pretty molasses in front of a pretty sun atop a dark-wooded table. I don’t set my food gorgeously for myself to eat off. It’s very deceiving. My pictures lie.

But it’s so much fun, eh? I don’t particularly want to set my food prettily up to bake/cook/eat every day, but it’s certainly nice sometimes–especially when pictures are involved.

We both must say good bye to these beautifully dark woods and tan plates that have accompanied my pictures for the last little while. My school semester has ended and I’m back in Toronto for the summer. However, in September, a new apartment and a new set of plates await for in the upcoming new school semester—to think, 5 different sets of plates and bowls have been featured on this blog already from all the different places I’ve lived at in the past few years. Mindblowing.

These molasses cookies were one of the few things that I baked for my old roomie and I to nom on—they were fantastic. Very chewy, sweet, salty, and spicy.

Summer is here and it is beckoning. Here comes the sun, little darling…

Molasses Cookies
Recipe by Crosby’s Molasses

Whole Wheat Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Carrot Cookies

I find myself on more than a few occasions wishing that I liked things as much as others like them—rather than harbouring deeply negative thoughts about them (like wanting to punch fictional characters in the face—with knuckle dusters. NO, not knuckle dusters, that would be violent and undeservingly mean. O, jeez, my heart is all in a nervous flutter over how cruel that must have sounded.)

I wish that I like coffee (too bitter, but smells so good).

I wish that I like the movie Bridesmaids (Revolutionary film with strong female comics…I feel anti-feminist for not loving it. I don’t find it hilarious.)

I wish that I like watching sports (collective cheering and high-fiving looks fun).

I wish that I like bitter melons (too green—kiiiiiiding, too bitter).

I wish that I like watching Korean dramas (too…much…pouting…stoppit.)

Alcohol…there’s a lot of things out there that I shouldn’t knock until I try them, eh?

Whole wheat cookies, an entity that I once thought would fail, hands down. How about whole wheat cookies with a vegetable in it too? And oats! These whole wheat oatmeal, carrot, and chocolate chip cookies came oat amazingly well. I had a huge fear that they’d come out cakey, like muffin tops, so I squished them down slightly. Instead, the cookies came out chewy and delicious, tender from all the grains and grated carrots and you can definitely taste all of the ingredients.

I need to give everything else a second chance, don’t I?

However, I had a funny conversation with one of my clients once about this topic. I was going on and on in a self-pitying speech about how I wished that I understood the movie, Bridesmaids, and why people liked it. Why, o why? “Oh, you’re one of those people,” my client said. “What people?” I asked. “You care what other people think of you,” he told me. His comment stopped me in my tracks immediately. It was true. But…..should I really be putting so much effort and worry about a movie? Naw.

So, live your lives as you see fit, my peaches (but lend a ear to advice as well–might be wise stuff.)

Whole Wheat, Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Carrot Cookies
I used the recipe by Marcus Samuelsson. The only thing I changed was using whole grain flour instead of whole wheat flour. 

Granola Cookies

“Oh my goodness…you’re a BOY!”

This joke has gotten me in trouble twice in my life. You see, I thought it was funny. The boys…they saw it as an attack on their masculinity. But no, I wasn’t trying to accuse them of being lily livered fools. The line was, in fact,  an opening to break the tension with humour so I could trick them into helping me bake and cook.

You know: Wow, you’re a man! ==> You probably have great upper body strength ==> Hey look, here’s some thick batter that needs mixing ==> Why don’t you help me, you big strong man with muscles, you hunk of pure raw power, you, and er, GRRRRR.

I will never use that line again because it hurts feelings.

—Except one time this week when I said it to my brother. But he understands my awful sense of humour, that dear boy, and joined my sister and I in making some granola cookies with no hard feelings. Yes, we have both a table top and a hand held electric mixer, but there’s something satisfying about vigorously putting effort into your food, eh? And me bro had to sweat for his food.

I like granola. This recipe really allows my tasty granola to shine through too. I really like them, man.

Granola Cookies
Recipe is not mine, but comes from someone on the internet. Unfortunately, I’m not sure who…but I did change it a wee bit.

1 ¼ cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup butter
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups granola
¾ cup chocolate chips (optional)

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat together the butter, sigars, and vanilla with an electric beater until it is fluffy.

Beat in the egg.

Add in the flour and mix in thoroughly.

Stir in the granola and any other extras that you’d like.*

Roll the cookies into little balls about 1 tablespoon or so big or drop the cookies onto a baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 13 minutes or until golden brown. Softer when you bake less, crunchier when you bake more.

*Chocolate chips are tasty. In the cookies shown in the pictures, we added a big dollop of Nutella and almonds.

Cashew Cookies

Cashews taste deliciously sweet to me. So does whole grain bread, for that matter. I think that I have a super sensitivity to sweet things.

Do you like sugar?

Really. What a question  to ask.

The better question may be…do you like a whole of sugar?

In my case, I always thought that my heart’s love was benevolently divided in half for both sweet and savoury. I will give my time to both the decadent slice of cake and to that bag of chips that you’re going to share with me. However, I realized one day…I can say no to savoury foods when I am full. However, if you offer me a cookie or a slice of pie…”no” kindly drops away from my vocabulary.

These cashew cookies marries sweet and savoury into a delightful package. It crumbles like shortbread and taste like cashews. They’re greatness.

Cashew Cookies
Adapted only slightly from Sea Salt with Food

250 g all purpose flour, sifted
250 g cashews
150 g Sugar
1 stick (225 g) unsalted butter or margarine, cold and cut into smaller pieces
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
a handful of cashew halves
1 egg white for egg wash

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease.

Grind cashews in a food processor or blender until it is ground into a floury substance. Be careful that you do not over-grind or else you will have cashew butter.

Mix together flour, ground cashews, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter until it is uniformly incorporated and the mixture is crumbly.

Mix in the sugar and vanilla. Combine the dough together by hand into a soft dough. Set aside for about 20 minutes.

Using a tablespoon, or guesswork, grab little balls of the dough and roll into balls. Place on cookie sheets, and squish flat to about a third of a centimetre with the bottom of a cup or another flat surface. Press a cashew half in the centre and brush with egg white.

Bake in preheated oven for about 18 to 20 minutes. Mine took less then that, about 15 minutes. Cool on tray for 3-4 minutes (they are soft coming out of the oven!) before cooling on wire racks.