I have, however, somehow managed to do some baking in between. Before I get right into things, though, I just wanted to say 'sorry!' for having delayed in doing a lot of writing to you guys. I think I might be coming down with something (again). Man, have I been tired lately! Thankfully, the sniffling, nose running, can't-get-out-of-bed-to-save-your-life sickness hasn't descended. Come on, let's rally, immune system! Lay on the O.J.!
Right, baking. I did attempt to be healthier this time around. I tried really desperately very hard to be healthy. Really. I was going to bake cupcakes and then, when I thought about how much icing I would have to make (because inevitably I'd be doing a lot of cleaning with my tongue) and then how much further I'd have to push myself, I wimped out. Cut me a little slack, though. Its bitter cold outside!
So, I fired up the laptop and set my internet search skills to work (read: google). Somehow, I came across apple quinoa cake from 'Anja's Food 4 Thought' . Quinoa in a cake? Intrigued... Also, I'm a huge apple fan so finding a 'large apple' to use simply requires me to open the fridge to the bounty of apples from the farmer's market! (In a word, awesome. And the farmers who sell them are totally rad too. Win-win!)
So, I baked 'em up just as the recipe online said to do. Aren't you proud? Okay, don't be too proud because I left out the sunflower seeds (allergic, my bad) and raisins (none in the pantry, bummer). I even picked up some palm sugar that, let me tell you, smells wicked. Sort of like a more buttery, coconut-y version of brown sugar in a powder form. I think we will have other cullinary adventures together in the future.
Those muffins were reserved for personal use. They freeze pretty okay, too. I just let them cool completely then wrapped in saran, placed them into a Chinese take-out container and shoved 'em in the freezer. Somehow, that sounded a lot more succinct in my head. Why freeze them? Well, those muffins were a bit of a selfish bake. They made the apartment smell awesome and were for my nom-ing purposes. Since I started this blog for the recipes that I share, I'm going to skip over copying that recipe here.
Okay, I did say that I baked some things so I still owe you guys a shared adventure right? Very yes.
Do you guys eat PB? I grew up on the stuff (Kraft, the one with the teddy bears on the jar, and Skippy, I think, intermittently). Combined with jam, I really can't make a lot of complaints. Also, peanut butter cookies with a few chunks of actual peanuts are lovely (Tim Horton's classic, anyone?). Growing up, however, my love for the PB has really died. The final nail in the coffin was figuring out how they make the commercial stuff. Its was like figuring out that atoms don't have discrete shells of electrons; don't get me wrong, the math is cool, too, but I liked the shell concept while it lasted.
Okay, given that I gave up PB. I switched to almond butter and am much happier. Its just a richer, nuttier flavour without needing like a ton of it. Buying a big jar of almond love, however, was not my smartest move. It separates and, if you don't eat it quickly enough, it can go bad. So I had a jar that needed some using up. I was worried it would go bad and, honestly, good AB shouldn't go to waste. The solution? Skip the bread and make some cookies. Oh wait, first, check that you won't kill anyone in the work place *then* bake some cookies. 'Cause some people are allergic, you know. Just saying.
AB&J Cookies
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| From wet crumbles, to crumbs before arriving at baked awesome! I was scared that this might not turn out because the almond butter was inherently a little bit runnier than your standard PB. I mean, when you have to mix the crap out of something to get it spreadable as opposed to I-opened-the-jar-for-use, things are going to be a little different. I think this might be why mine spread more. |
- 1 cup almond butter, properly stirred (You can't have it all separated, after all.)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- jar of your best preserves, my kind sir (or ma’am) (I'm kidding, any jam you use will do nicely. Like the jar of preserves your mum made you about a year and a half ago... ^__^;;)
How It's Done:
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Line a couple baking sheets with some foil. (You can use a greased cookie sheet, but I love my pyrex pan a little too much to gum it up just yet.)
- In a bowl, combine the AB and sugar with a mixer until its well combined. (Basically, you want to mix it up until it looks even and, turning it over, you don't find any sugar hiding from you.)
- Add the egg and baking soda and mix again for 2 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and mix briefly to get it throughout; it will come out a little crumbly. (For this, my batter looked much like the sand that you find on the beach underneath the dry powdery stuff; it looked pretty damp and crumbly.)
- Grab a cloth and set near the mixing bowl. (This is pretty key; it will come in handy later!)
- Using your hands, form balls of dough and drop them on the sheet.
- With a finger (or your smallest measuring spoon), press a small hole in the top of each ball.
- Give you hands a wipe with the cloth to clean them off a bit so you don't get batter everywhere. (Because I used the almond butter, my hands had some of the almond oil there so the towel was pretty handy. Told you it would come in handy.)
- Drop a bit of jam in each little well.
- Stick the cookies in the oven for 10-12 minutes. (I found for mine that they needed about 11 minutes but, as I'm sure I've mentioned, my oven is tricksy!)
- Once they're done, cool them on the sheet for five minutes then transfer to a rack to cool. (I let mine cool a little longer than usual because it took the pan a little longer to cool too.)
- When you're done, tin 'em up and separate layers with wax paper. Or just enjoy! (But wait for them to cool. As I quickly learned, hot cookies not only crumble all over the place but stick and burn. Its a yummy burn, but it makes tasting a little tricky for a while! =P)
I found the recipe for these beauties on Joy's webpage. Originally, it's done with peanut butter and, I have to say, her cookies look a lot cuter than mine. T__T;;; Jealous! I think the reason is that the almond butter had more natural oil than solids (probably because my mixing skills were lacking once when I went to use it). They still turned out okay so I guess I shouldn't belly-ache. =P
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