Favorite Cookies, EVER!

Sorry all, but there are no pictures of these delicious cookies on this post.  By the time I thought of taking pictures, they had all been eaten by a mob of hungry children.  (Not to mention the dozen a few that were sneaked by the cook herself!) 

Anyway, the credit for the recipe should go to Emily Hendrix, author of Sophie-Safe Cooking whose recipe I stole and modified.

Ginger Apricot Cookies

1/2 cup of butter or shortening
1 cup sucanat or sugar of your choice (I am addicted to the molasses taste of sucanat!)
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 1/2 cups oat flour (just grind oatmeal in the blender or food processor for a minute or two)
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp fresh ginger (or substitute 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
1 cup finely chopped dried apricots

Beat shortening and sucanat until fluffy.  Add lemon juice and mix well.  Mix in oat flour, baking soda, salt, and ginger.  Add apricots and mix well.  Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheet.  Bake at 350F for 12 minutes.

This recipe made about 3 dozen cookies for me.

Chickpea Paste

As I mentioned in my review of Bean Appetit, it is apparently an option to use a chickpea paste instead of butter in baking.  All you need to do is blend chickpeas into a paste in your blender or food processor.   Add some water to help the paste mix if necessary.  I have then had success using it in recipes in equal proportion to the butter requirement. 

Using the chickpea paste, I find that I do not get the oily texture that results from substituting oil or shortening.  Instead, I get a delicious, buttery texture. 

Of course, you will want to make sure that the mixture is well-blended so that an errant chickpea doesn't make it into the cake!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Today was not a good day for a variety of reasons.  I ended up sitting in my room getting angrier and angrier, when I decided to do something about the situation.  What we needed, I decided, was a celebration.  So kuddos to Dr. Seuss for providing such a timely birthday for us!

After naptime, I had Adrienne help me bake some cupcakes.  We decided to do chocolate, as that is her favorite flavor, and, hey, Mom's pregnant and could always use some chocolate.  Besides, I do need to be testing allergy friendly cake batter recipes in preparation for our multitude of birthdays this month.  Here she is mixing the batter:

While they baked and cooled, we read some Dr. Seuss books for decorating inspiration.  Since it was a bad day, I wasn't wanting anything that would be remotely complicated.  After tossing around the idea of just frosting half of them red and the other half white, Adrienne and I decided that Green Egg Cupcakes were in order.  Easy enough for Mom to frost and exciting enough for the kids to eat.  Here's the finished product.

As you can see, they were a major hit!