It’s been a “bad” month for creating things. Work has been crazy busy and I have been off on some mini-adventures, which has left the cooking and baking at the margins, which I hate. Mostly because cooking and baking are my self-reliever, and when I just don’t have the time or the energy, I feel badly. That said, last night I did make these Apricot and Dried Cranberry Pinwheel Cookies. They aren’t the prettiest cookies that I have ever made (I let the butter get too soft, which in turn make the dough crumbly which in turn made it hard to roll out, and then roll together). They do taste quite lovely though.
Cookies
As we march from Spring through early Summer to now the “dog days” of Summer, we move more towards stone fruits — apricots, peaches, plums and the like — which make great jam which is also the important part of my super easy to make crumble bars. There must be about 5 different versions here on the site. They are great to add to lunches or to pack into picnics!
Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies … I’ve made similar cookies before, but tried something new this time, instead of using butter, I made them with coconut oil with the thought that they would stay a little more chewy than crunchy. The trick though is that you absolutely have to let them chill completely after forming and before making, otherwise you will have a complete mess on your hands. Turned out pretty yummy, if I do say so myself!
A couple of weekends ago, I went berry picking again and got a slew of red currants. Some were made into jam, so I thought I would use some of that jam to make these thumpprint cookies. You could also use raspberry jam or tart cherry jam, which also go quite nicely with the chocolate combination — the whole tart + chocolate is really nice.
I thought that I would do a quick and easy giveaway this week, using my all-around go-to brownie recipe, and this time add toffee bits and toasted pecans. I love this brownie recipe — it comes together in minutes, is a million times better than “the box” and it really versatile. And just to be creative, I used a cookie cutter to make the cuts round on these Toffee Pecan Brownie Bites.