Not such an attractive looking dessert, but oh my, is it ever good. Maple syrup heads the line-up of ingredients and its flavor dominates, in a good way.

Not so long ago I was at a Phillis Carey cooking class, and she explained that she’d been on a cruise in Canada and was served this dessert, a French dessert, more than once and when she got home she played around with it, keeping true to the original concept recipe, and created this that’s mostly like a cake, but it has this wonderful maple sauce it makes as it bakes. You’ve had pudding-cakes before, I’m sure. I have a bunch here on my blog, my favorites being a Lemon Sponge Pudding, a Sticky Chocolate Sponge Pudding, and lastly a Warm Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake. If you go to my recipe index page for Desserts, scroll almost to the bottom and you’ll find a listing of the various pudding cakes I’ve made over the years. The Gingerbread one is awfully good too.

This recipe uses darker maple syrup (meaning it has a more intense, darker flavor, the darker always better in my book), plus cream, and mostly other standard baking ingredients, and it goes together quite quickly. This is an intensely flavored pudding cake – the maple flavor predominates, but it’s also very, very sweet. I didn’t make this myself, just ate it at Phillis’ cooking class, but when I make it I’m going to reduce the sugar by about half. There’s not much sugar in it – 1/3 cup – the sweet comes mostly from the maple syrup – but I’d definitely use less and see how it turned out. If you don’t mind the sweet (almost made my teeth ache) by all means use the full 1/3 cup. You need all the maple syrup because it is integral to the sauce portion. And whatever you do, DON’T substitute cheap “breakfast syrup” for the maple syrup. This is a time when you must use the real thing.

The maple syrup mixture (a cream-based concoction) is mixed up and half poured into an 8×8 glass dish. Then the batter is made – it’s  wet batter sort of like pancakes, I suppose – and you use a spoon to scoop big portions or mounds into the dish (six of them), then you pour the remaining maple mixture on top and bake it. Once baked, you do want to let it sit just a bit – that maple syrup would be VERY hot – it would burn your mouth if you ate it immediately. Serve warm with whipped cream or a dollop of crème fraîche on top. Likely you’ll hear raves and mmmm’s around the table.

What’s GOOD: the intense maple flavor is the first thing you’ll notice – it’s so good warm – do serve it that way. But I don’t imagine left overs would be bad even at room temp, either. It’s comfort food at it’s French Canadian best!

What’s NOT: nothing really – just read my note about reducing the sugar – it’s very sweet. Not good for anyone who’s averse to sugar!

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Are you ready for December entertaining? If you’d like to make a really tasty, cranberry-seasonal appetizer that’s SUPER EASY, try this cranberry salsa that has a bit of kick from jalapeno. Absolutely super.

For Thanksgiving, every year, I make my cranberry relish. It’s a raw relish, and I remember my mother making something similar one year when I was probably a teenager. I took her recipe (cranberries, oranges, sugar) and made a few additions (ground ginger and apple) and that’s been my go-to cranberry relish ever since. Now when I found THIS appetizer recipe, back in 2008, it sounded so similar to that regular raw cranberry relish, but it’s an appetizer. And it has jalapeno chile in it. And cumin. Oh, and cilantro. It’s such an unlikely combination, but it sure does work.

If you’re having a smaller crowd, make half the recipe below – I used the full 12 ounces of cranberries – and I have quite a lot of this.

What’s the best part – how EASY it is to make. First whiz up a medium jalapeno (more if you like spicy) and a couple of green onions – they need to be finely minced. Then add in the fresh cranberries, sugar, cilantro and ground cumin. Whiz that up for 15+ seconds, pulsing, maybe scraping down the sides at least once, and it’s DONE. Scoop out into a container and refrigerate it for at least a few hours, preferably overnight – which gives the sugar a chance to dissolve and the flavors to come together. If you like spice (heat) add 2 jalapenos. When I tasted it – when I made it – I thought whoa – this is going to be too hot, but when it’s spread on a cracker with cream cheese, it totally mellows out the heat. Next time I will be adding more jalapeno to it.

At least 2 hours before you’re ready to serve this take out the 8-ounce block of cream cheese and let it sit out in its package, to soften. Yes, it will be fine – and it will be soft and spreadable when that time is  up. Put it out on a serving plate and nicely spread the salsa on top and add crackers or tortilla chips and you’re done. I happened to have some of Trader Joe’s pumpkin raisin cracker/toasts which were just super with this.

What’s GOOD: everything about this is good – easy, quick, and extremely tasty. I couple of days after I made this and served it, I had it for lunch. That was my lunch – crackers, cheese (protein) and fruit, albeit with sugar added in. I’ll definitely be making this again and again.

What’s NOT: I can’t think of anything that isn’t great about this appetizer. Make it, okay?

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On Monday, the 3 of us spent nearly all day baking Christmas cookies. What cookies, you ask? Read below.

Looks like I was the only one holding the glass of champagne and cassis we decided to share. Another friend, Sandy, stopped by with a bottle of champagne (thanks, Sandy). Sandy took the picture of us. Cherrie and I both made some of the cookie dough ahead of time so we had a leg up on the long day of baking. Here’s what we made – all recipes you can find here on my blog:

Chocolate Almond Saltine Toffee – seems like this cookie/candy thing made with saltine crackers, caramel, chocolate and almonds has made the rounds for several years now. It’s such a winner of a recipe. I particularly like these because they’re sweet, salty, crunch and chocolate all at the same time. Love the texture. I’m not much of a fan of chocolate or caramel, but this. Oh yes, love it.

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Next on the list of cookies were Cranberry Noels. They’re a slice and bake type – a sugar cookie type with chopped dried cranberries inside, formed into long rolls, then gently rolled in unsweetened shredded coconut. They’re chilled for several hours or overnight, sliced and baked. One of my favorites, and I even make them at other times of the year than Christmas.

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These are just the best Ginger Cookies – a recipe from my friend Ann N. They’re crispy and crunchy and very easy. They flatten out all by themselves in the oven – all you do is roll them, press them down with a fork and bake. Great with a cup of coffee, I can attest.

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Mexican Wedding Cookies – the picture at left looks like they’re beige. No – I must have taken the photo under ambient light, not under my good lighting. So, they’re traditional and coated in powdered sugar that gets all over you and everything. But, they’re oh-so good. A must every Christmas.

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Viennese Chocolate-Walnut Bars. What can I say – good and chocolatey, but not like fudge. It’s more like a thick cake on top then topped with another thin layer of icing, then chocolate and nuts.  It’s a Maida Heatter recipe if that gives you any clue as to how perfect these are. I hadn’t made these for several years, but I’m glad we did. I’ve had one piece two mornings in a row with my coffee.

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Baked Apricot Rosemary Bars – the filling does have to cook for awhile (dried apricots, white wine, sugar, honey, brandy and salt) then it’s whizzed up in the blender. It is spread on top of the baked shortbread type layer (that contains the fresh chopped rosemary) and topped with crumbs, then baked.

We had a really fun day – Jackie and Cherrie both kept the kitchen sink clean by washing several batches of cookie sheets, mixing bowls and utensils. I almost took a picture of my kitchen floor to show you what it looked like. Not a pretty sight. My cleaning gals came the next day so I just left it all there and they cleaned it up.

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Although this could be a vegetable side dish, I made it as my dinner entrée the other night. It was absolutely delicious. And filling. And relatively good for me (however, there’s some milk in it – just a little – and some cheese – and some butter).

Seems like I’m not as good as I used to be at planning ahead. In this case it was planning for my own dinner. So, I hadn’t defrosted any chicken, or fish, or whatever – and by the time I thought about it, it was after 5 pm. But, I did have some fresh vegetables in the crisper.

This is a riff on an Ina Garten recipe that I’ve posted here on my blog already – zucchini gratin. (That dish was a favorite of my darling DH and I haven’t made this since he passed away last year.) It’s a very simple recipe to make – cooking some onion and zucchini, pouring it into a casserole dish and topping it with panko and grated cheeses. What I had in my refrigerator were yellow crookneck and sugarsnap peas. I always have some corn in the freezer too. And I’d bought some Fontina cheese (a good melting cheese) and I always have some Parmigiano-Reggiano in the refrigerator also. First the onion is chopped up fine, cooked in butter, and while that’s cooking you slice up the squash – very thin actually. I have a small hand-held mandoline with 4 settings on it – I used the thickest, which is still pretty thin. All that’s added in and it gets cooked over low heat for about 8-10 minutes until the squash is just about cooked through. I’d chopped up some sugar snaps and found the corn in the freezer. That was cooked just slightly, then it’s seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg (and a little flour), then some milk is added to make a very light creamy sauce. Then it all was poured into a wide gratin pan. Then I grated the cheeses and tossed that with the panko crumbs. That got sprinkled on top and into a 400° oven it went and baked for about 20 minutes until the crumbs were golden brown and the vegetables were bubbling. I got two small casseroles out of the mixture, so I have another dinner of it in the near future. I’ll heat it in the toaster oven and turn it on to broil at the last minute to crisp up the crumbs.

What’s GOOD: a vegetable gratin is always delicious in my book. And since I love summer squash anyway, it’s a given I’d love this. The original recipe called for Gruyere cheese, and I think it probably has a bit more character (flavor) than the Fontina, but it was good anyway. I nearly licked the pan (not really) if that gives you an indication of how good it was. It’s comfort food.

What’s NOT: It does take a bit of work (mincing and slicing stuff) but it all comes together easily enough. From start to finish (out of the oven) took about 45 minutes, I guess.

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A cookie. A little bar. A little square of goodness. Chocolate, cookie crumbs (you’ll have to read below to learn what types), corn flakes (they are the little light colored horizontal striations you see buried in the cubes), nuts, dried cranberries and speculoos. What, you say? I know, you’ll need to read more about that below.

When I saw the picture of this little gem on Dorie Greenspan’s website, I just knew I needed to try them. The recipe was written up for her column at the Washington Post. What intrigued me were several things: (1) it was a no-bake cookie; (2) it called for 2 things I knew nothing about – Biscoff cookies (where have I been?) and speculoos (another, where have I been?); and (3) it was chocolate (yum). First, though, I had to FIND these elusive ingredients.

Going down the aisle at my grocery store I found the Biscoff cookies. Because I rarely buy store-bought cookies, I guess I’ve just never noticed. They’re a butter spice cookie, probably made with dark brown sugar, I’d guess. They’re crispy. The manufacturer says they’re “Europe’s Favorite Cookie with Coffee.” Not remembering how much I needed, I ended up buying 2 packages. I only needed one. But, if I hadn’t found the other elusive ingredient I would have used the 2nd package to make the cookie butter.

In the write-up, Dorie mentioned that Trader Joe’s makes a speculoos cookie butter which is very similar to the Biscoff cookie, in a butter form, and sure enough, they do. Right next to their version of Nutella. In a jar (see photo) and I scooped a spoonful of it up for you to see – it has the same look and texture as peanut butter. It’s jarred, and it says right on it, don’t refrigerate it. Okay, got it. I used most of the jar for the filling of this cookie. Don’t know what I’ll ever use the rest of it for – maybe over the holidays someone will want to spread it on toast. Being me, I had to go look up more about speculoos – from wikipedia: Speculoos is a type of spiced shortcrust biscuit, traditionally baked for consumption on or just before St Nicholas’ feast in the Netherlands, Belgium, and around Christmas in the western and southern parts of Germany (and they make it into a spread, just like Biscoff does).

In my pantry I had corn flakes. I also had ample dried cranberries, and I chose to use almonds in this – you can use any kind of nut you’d like, or use a combination. The recipe calls for just 1/2 cup of nuts. First you make the cookie base. I whizzed up nearly all of one cookie package in the food processor until it was fine crumbs. Melted butter was added, then it was patted into the 9×9 pan – actually it might be an 8×8 pan, which is what Dorie calls for. I do suggest you press the cookie crumb layer firmly – if you don’t it will fall apart when you try to cut it into cubes later.

That is put into the freezer to firm up while you make the filling. In a big saucepan you melt butter, the speculoos cookie spread/butter and 12 ounces of chocolate. Dorie prefers a dark chocolate, which is what I used. Milk chocolate can be substituted, though. I used a flame-tamer to do that part because the mixture was very thick (the speculoos particularly – it’s sticky like peanut butter) and I didn’t want it to burn. I let it cool a bit, then added the corn flakes, dried cranberries and almonds. You can also use raisins, dried cherries or chopped up dried apricots instead of the cranberries. You stir all this together until you can’t see any more of the cornflake pieces, then gently scoop it on top of the frozen crumb crust. Press it down firmly all over (I didn’t do that quite enough) so the chocolate layer adheres to the crumbs.

The mixture is spread out clear to the corners and you do squish it out and down as best you can. Chill several hours, or freeze. I can’t imagine trying to cut this from a frozen state. Getting this block of stuff out of the pan was a bit of challenge – I dipped the 8×8 pan into a pan of hot water for about a minute (being careful to not splash any water into the cookies), then used a narrow metal spatula to free all the edges. It came out easily at that point (Dorie actually recommends blowing a hair dryer all around the bottom and sides of the pan); I righted it, then cut it into cubes. Dorie recommended 7 sliced strips – I was only able to get 6 from my pan, then I carefully cut each of the long slices into cubes, so I got about 40. A serrated knife did not work for this (though Dorie suggests it). I found a big chef’s knife worked better. And as it was, I messed up a bunch of them where the crumb crust came unstuck. I’ve packaged them up in a plastic box and they’re in the refrigerator. Before serving, allow them to warm at room temp for about 15 minutes, Dorie suggests. My cubes were not very uniform – Dorie’s look like they’re cut with precision. It’s a bit hard to do – but that won’t matter to the taste of them.

What’s GOOD: love the flavor of these – the cookies give a different flavor and texture – the crunch in them is wonderful. I liked the corn flakes. All of it is good, and although it’s a no-bake cookie, you’ll still spend a bit of time making this. But it’s not like rolling out Christmas cookies, using a cookie cutter, then baking. I would think children would LOVE these. Haven’t tried them on any yet, but I will.

What’s NOT: nothing other than some time – saying it’s a no-bake cookie just means you don’t have to heat the oven. You’ll still spend a bit of time making them.

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Yet another way to creatively make a chicken breast into something distinctly special. Pretzels are pounded to make a kind of a rustic crust – oh so good – and then it’s served with a delicious cheddar cheese sauce on top. Decadent.

Right off the bat I’ll tell you that normally I’m not a fan of pretzels. If they’re served for an appetizer I usually pass them by. I don’t crave them, and they’re kind of empty calories in my book. But oh my, this way, making a crust with them, dipping chicken breasts in an egg-mustard mixture, then the pretzels are pressed onto the chicken. Sautéed in oil until the top and bottom are crusty brown, then baked in the oven for 8-10 minutes, then served with a very simple, but very tasty cheese sauce. Yes. Delicious.

Probably the most tedious thing about this is pounding the pretzels – do it in a plastic bag with a pounder or rolling pin until the pieces are still visible, but not like they’re crumbs. For sure don’t use a food processor for this step – it makes the pretzels too fine. You want all those little pieces that turn brown as it cooks in oil. There is a bit of prep to make this – prepping the chicken breasts (pounding them between 2 pieces of plastic wrap until they’re about 1/4 inch thick, maybe 1/3 inch), prepping the pretzel crust, making the egg-mustard mixture to dip the chicken into. Then prepping for the sauce – grating cheese (medium flavor, not sharp) and heating the milk in a separate pan so it comes together quickly once you start making it. The sauce is easy – just have everything ready before you begin.

Have the rest of your meal all ready too – a salad and veggie, perhaps – have the table all set – so then once you have the chicken in the oven, you whip together the sauce and when the chicken comes out, everything is done and ready to serve.

Don’t be tempted to add salt to this dish – the pretzels provide ample for it, and the cheese does too. Some cheddars have quite a lot of salt, so there’s another reason not to add any more salt. The dip into egg and mustard gives the pretzels something to stick to. Then they go into a wide pan with some fairly hot oil in it, and sauté just until the crust is brown, about 2 minutes per side. The chicken needs to be placed ON a rack – so you don’t make the bottom crust soggy, and it bakes for a short time in a 375° oven.

Meanwhile, get started on the sauce and it will come together while the chicken is in the oven. It comes together very quickly once you start, and it’s a great accompaniment to the chicken. Serve – to raves. I’m telling you. It’s delicious. Recipe came from a Phillis Carey cooking class.

What’s GOOD: you’ll be amazed that crushed-up pretzels could taste so good on chicken. It’s really special, and very different. People will not know what’s on the chicken – make it a guessing game and keep the bag of box of pretzels out of sight. I loved the crunch of the pretzel crust. Loved the cheddar cheese sauce too. Altogether wonderful.

What’s NOT: well, maybe all the prep time – more than usual, I guess. Sorry about that, but once you try it you’ll be glad you did.

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Oh my yes! Will you please make this? Soon. Super chocolate flavor, but tempered by the coconut on it and the coconut oil in it. A fabulous and easy dessert.

It’s true. I do love baking, but you’ll see that I have all kinds of other things on my blog too – meats, veggies, appetizers. All manner of things. But I suppose if I had to say, baking is my favorite thing to do. And since Dave, my DH, passed away (it’s now been a year and 8 months), I don’t entertain as much, and my dinner menus are more simple. I eat lots of left overs. But my Bible study group comes to my house frequently, so that satisfies my need for baking. And that’s what happened a week or so ago when I decided to make this.

The recipe came from Bon Appetit, in 2014. It’s baked in an 8-inch loaf pan – recently I actually measured my bread pans and was surprised to find that my smallest one is actually closer to 9” instead of 8” so I bought a new one. This new one, though, is almost smaller than 8”. So this cake almost bubbled over the top. Just so you know. If you use a 9” pan, the baking time will be different, and it won’t be as high, obviously.

What’s different about this cake is the use of coconut oil – not the liquid type (is there a liquid type?) but the congealed type (that’s called virgin coconut oil) that almost has the consistency of shortening. It gets mixed with sugar, then with eggs and it whizzes up in the stand mixer until it has a very light, but thick consistency. Billowy almost, but not quite. Then you mix in the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder) in additions along with buttermilk. Into the baking pan it goes – with waxed paper carefully placed inside so you can use it as a sling to remove the cake from the pan. You use a spatula to make a groove down the middle – an important step. Even so, my cake almost spilled over. You can’t quite see it in the photos, but one side had a big bulge – I cut it off and ate it, thank you. Yum.

There on the right you can see the groove I made. Since the pan was so full I had difficulty doing it, and the batter was wet enough that it kind of oozed back into the center as soon as I’d done it. But do try. Then you add on the toppings (granulated sugar and unsweetened coconut). Into the oven it went and it baked for 80 minutes (recipes says 70-80, but mine took the full 80) until a tester inserted in the middle came out clean.

Then it’s left out to rest and cool for at least 20 minutes (I think mine cooled for an hour or so – made for easier handling), then cooled completely on a rack for another hour or two. Picture at left is the batter with the toppings, ready to go into the oven.

What’s GOOD: the chocolate flavor is absolutely wonderful (I used Hershey’s Dark cocoa), and it’s super moist. Easy to slice too, with a serrated knife. The recipe indicated it serves 8, but I got about 11 slices from mine. I served it with sweetened whipped cream. Everybody loved it. I loved it. Can’t wait to have a slice after lunch or dinner today. Or, maybe I’ll have a slice with a cup of tea this afternoon. It’s also very easy to make. The recipe says it will keep for 5 days, wrapped well, at room temp. I guarantee you it won’t last that long.  The coconut flavor is enough that you DO taste it in the cake (from using the oil). I liked the flavor a lot.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever. It’s a great dessert cake.

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There’s something so extra special (to me) about chicken with lemon. Lots of lemon. This fits the bill!

Recently I drove up to Northern California to visit with my daughter and her family who live in Placerville (California Gold Country). One night we went out to dinner, another night Dana did a spaghetti dinner, and the 3rd night I made this lemon chicken. It was really wonderful. And easy. I loved the lemon flavor that permeated the chicken (I used thighs) and the sauce was really wonderful on the chicken and on the rice we made to go with it.

I didn’t have a recipe in mind when I decided to do chicken with lemon, but went online and this recipe came up within the first few. It’s from Southern Living, back in 2010. If you want to make it according to that recipe you certainly can, but it won’t be as lemony as the chicken doesn’t get cooked with the lemon sauce at all. I altered the recipe just a little bit because I bought chicken thighs, not breasts, as was called for in the recipe. And I like the chicken cooked in the lemon anyway, not just as a side flavor or sauce.

So first you dip the chicken in flour with some pepper mixed in. Then the boneless, skinless thighs are sautéed in a bit of olive oil and butter just until they get golden on both sides. They’re removed to a plate while you concoct the sauce. Lemon juice and chicken broth are added in and cooked just a bit, then the chicken is added back into the pan, a lid put on and you simmer the thighs for about 20 minutes or so until they’re done. In that time, the sauce has cooked down just a little, and it’s thickened some because of the flour mixture used on the chicken. You can make a few very thin slices of lemon to put on top of the chicken as it cooks, then add a few for garnish also. And a bit of Italian parsley is sprinkled in and also on top when it’s served. We served the sauce on the side so you could decide where you wanted it – only on the chicken, or also on the rice.

What’s GOOD: I loved-loved the lemony flavor, but I love lemon any way, shape or form, so it was a no-brainer for me. I think everybody else liked it too. It’s easy to make – easy enough for a weeknight dinner for sure. The butter added into the sauce at the last made it special.

What’s NOT: the only thing I’d mention is that the breading you put on at the beginning and is slightly browned, gets soggy when it cooks in the lemon sauce – so don’t expect crispy anything. It’s all soft food, so to speak. Delicious nevertheless.

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You know you’ve been to a Phillis Carey class when the title of the recipe is almost as long as the recipe itself. Well, not really, but she does get teased about her titles sometimes. She doesn’t want you to be at all confused about what’s in the dish, so she puts all the important stuff in the title.

I think pork tenderloin is one of the new “darlings” of the foodie and entertaining circuit. It’s lean – and sometimes almost tasteless if you don’t do something to it. But it’s versatile. In this recipe the pork is kind of sliced to open it up a little bit and then pounded out flatter, so it’s big enough to enclose a filling. You will have made a bacon and crimini mushroom filling which gets rolled up inside the pork. Because the pork is lean and not strong on flavor, you want the filling to be bold (in this case with bacon, mushrooms, both umami flavors).

Phillis made a really flavorful sauce with shallots, vermouth, chicken broth, Dijon mustard, fresh thyme and crème fraîche. It’s a fairly thin sauce (as you can see on the plate in the picture). You can cook it down some, if desired, to make it a bit thicker. You could add a tiny bit of flour to the shallots and butter if you want to have the sauce thicken up a bit. I might do that next time. It would be wonderful with rice or mashed potatoes – to soak up that great sauce.

What’s really nice is this makes a pretty presentation – you can’t quite see the filling in the photo as the shallot sauce is covering it up. So this would make a great company meal. I usually can feed 3 people from a Costco pork tenderloin. If it’s smaller (as in regular grocery store types) then you may only feed 2 or 2 1/2 people. This recipe uses 2 pork tenderloins and it feeds 6 people. Because of the filling and the sauce (and the other sides) you may be able to stretch it a little bit. All depends on how hungry your family or guests happen to be.

The rolled up and tied pork is browned briefly in a skillet, then it finishes in the oven for just 15-20 minutes. This isn’t a 30-minute meal – sorry! You can make the sauce while the pork is baking, though, so it’s not much more than a 30-minute prep  and cooking time.

What’s GOOD: makes a really attractive company meal. If you’re into doing a filling for a weeknight family meal, it’s not all that hard or time consuming, and the pork cooks in no time flat (15-20 minutes in the oven plus browning time). It looks pretty and the mushroom and bacon filling is really, really good.

What’s NOT: only the time it takes to make the filling and the sauce. And fill and tie up the pork.

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Well, so . . . . we had some cookies while we were in the safari camps. They put them out for our game drive stops, and sometimes they served them after lunch, or at the sundowner stops as well. They called them biscuits since that’s the British tradition to call them so. They were really wonderful, so I asked for the recipe. There begins the tale.

There at the camp, they called these Anzac biscuits, but since I knew all about ANZAC Biscuits (ANZAC – Australia New Zealand Air Corps – click on the link to read my post about it) from our trip to Australia some years ago, I knew these weren’t ANZAC. But, oh well, they called them such, so I just added on the “safari” part. The original ANZAC biscuits were developed when World War II caused lots of rationing, and the biscuits would keep well if they were shipped to soldiers abroad.

There at left is the photo I took of the cookies at the camp where these were served first. Do note how completely different these look than mine – more cookie than anything else. Whereas my cookies (above) are nearly all seeds and oats and coconut and almost nothing to hold them together.

The cookies are healthier than some – they contain some good nutritional stuff in them, as I mentioned. Lots of seeds. That’s part of what intrigued me about them – they had pumpkin seeds and flax seeds (that’s mostly what you see at left).

So once I was home for awhile, I decided to tackle this recipe – I bought a big bag of flax seeds, and a big bag of pumpkin seeds too. I thought I had sesame seeds, but couldn’t find them, so maybe next time I’ll add them too.

The recipe is fairly straight forward, other than the butter and syrup (Golden syrup or Karo) is melted together, and you also dissolve baking soda in boiling water and combine the two before adding that to the cookie dough. I used my stand mixer because I suspected the dough would be a bit unwieldy. Yes, it was. But I certainly didn’t know how much unwieldy it would be.

When the camp director handed me the recipe she mentioned that they also added about 1 1/2 cups of seeds. She’s written it in on the side. She mentioned flax, pumpkin and sesame. Okay. No problem. So, I did a combo of two of those and after adding in the oats and coconut, I poured in the seeds. And the mixer laboriously tried to mix it all up. It succeeded, but only barely. I had to do some of it by hand because it was fairly stiff.

Because the dough didn’t look like the camp cookies, I baked just one cookie sheet of them. And once out of the oven I groaned – these didn’t look anything like theirs. Oh dear. I decided to try another tray. Then I added in some chocolate chips and just a tiny bit of flour. Oh dear me. That mixture became almost impossible to work with, but I went ahead and made more cookies out of it. I really thought that I was going to have a monumental failure on my hands. At that point, though, what else could I do but try to make it work.

I ended up giving nearly all of them away, keeping only about 3-4 of the seeded ones without chips. The ones without any chocolate chips were better (to me anyway), though I rarely turn down chocolate in anything. And I’ve enjoyed eating them – chewing and chewing – as those seeds get stuck in your teeth (particularly the flax).

My take-away from this is – I think – that they SUBSTITUTE seeds for the oats and coconut – not adding them IN ADDITION TO. I reduced the amount of seeds from 1 1/2 cups to 1 1/4 cups only because I felt they had enough. But, for the sake of this recipe, I’m giving it to you exactly as I made them – with all the add-ins, which makes the cookies up top – mostly seeds, oats and coconut. And they’re really quite delicious. They just don’t look like the camp cookies. I took these to a friend who phoned me this morning to tell me she thought these were the BEST cookies she’d ever tasted and can’t wait to make them. And here I thought they were a failure! As I’ve had a cookie each day since I made these, I’m liking them even more. I may try them again with just seeds and try baking one tray first, to see how they turn out, then I may add in the oats and coconut anyway. If I make them again with changes, I’ll be sure to report all about it.

What’s GOOD: well, sometimes what you think is a failure turns out to be a great success. These aren’t quite like what I had on safari, but they’re really wonderful and worth making. They’re healthier than some, which is a bonus.

What’s NOT: they’re not a traditional cookie – they’re more add-ins than they are cookie. But I have no complaint!

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click on link to open recipe)

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