Here are some quick and easy cookies that fill that peanut craving and are pretty darn healthy as they are mostly honey sweetened, with just a touch of sugar. I made these mostly because I had leftover Planter’s Honey Roasted Peanuts (yeah, I know, how does one have “leftover peanuts”, but I wanted to finish up a jar to make room in the pantry. Turned out nice with a balance of sweet and salty.
I’ve made these before. OK, it was a variation of them, but this is one of my most versatile recipes… use currants, cherries, blueberries or raspberries (I would stay a little away from strawberries because they are too liquidy). While sometimes I make my own jam, this time I was lazy (or “made it easy”) by using store bought. Black currants aren’t exactly in season in Spring in New England!
I was recently given a bottle of smoked maple syrup. Yes, I was skeptical as well, especially when I opened the bottle and it was really, really smokey. Hickory and Oak, but smoke, smoke, smoke. I thought long and hard about what I should experiment with, and ultimately, I think that it would go great simply poured over some BBQ ribs, but I thought that I would actually try it in a sweet application, so I came up with this recipe for blondies. And you know what? It worked and they are actually very good. The smoke flavor (and admittedly, I only used a few tablespoons) is really tempered by the toffee and maple and instead of it tasking like smoke, it simply has a deep, almost earthy thing going on. Really quite nice. Also, if you don’t want do the whole “smoke” thing, this recipe works just as well with regular maple syrup.
A couple of years ago, I made these Almond Butter Cookies, which turned out great, so I thought I would revisit the recipe and throw it for a twist and add chocolate. They turned out really well too and aren’t too sweet, which is my favorite kind of cookie. Sort of like biscotti (though not nearly as hard), these go great dunking in coffee. Also, if you don’t have a funky cookie stamp, just use a fork to make a little pattern on the top, but definitely remember to chill them before baking, otherwise the pattern completely disappears.
Back to cookies and back to chocolate. It’s been a few weeks. Where have you been all my life? 🙂
These cookies aren’t very sweet, so be forewarned, but they are spicy and delicious. And as the name might suggest, they actually go very well with a glass of red wine … or a cocktail (though I guess that depends on which one). They may not look like much — these teeny tiny cookies — but they are addictive!