Monster Cookies

I’ve fallen off the wagon.  The sugar wagon that is.  As I’ve mentioned before, I gave up unrefined sugar for Lent.  Well, Lent is over, and so is the fast!

Have you heard the news about the toxicity of sugar?  Or this research that it is more addictive than cocaine?  I believe them both.  Oddly, I gave up sugar for the month of January as well, but the extra two weeks of Lent made a big difference.  When I had my first bite of sugar on February 1, I felt no different than on I did on January 31 with no sugar in my system.  However when I had sugar the first time after Lent, I felt horrible.  I felt nauseous, anxious, and got a horrible headache.  And then I wanted more, and I felt better, for an hour.  So, I believe the research that it is more addictive than cocaine.

And yet here I am posting a cookie recipe!  What can I say, I’m an addict!  And these cookies are my cocaine!

Have you had this trail mix from Target?

It may very well be cocaine packaged up and sold on the shelves at your local Target!  It’s M&Ms, peanuts, raisins, peanut butter chips, and chocolate chips.  I could eat the entire container in a day if I didn’t exercise any self-restraint.  So to keep my self from eating handful after handful, I decided to make Monster Cookies using the mix!  It was a good idea, except I still ate the whole container, wrapped up in my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough from Milk & Cookies.

MONSTER COOKIES (Makes about 3 dozen cookies)

2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 TBS vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups Monster Trail Mix

Preheat oven to 350.

Put oats in a food processor and process until finely ground.  Transfer to a large mixing bowl.  Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter on low to soften.  Increase speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes, until light and creamy.  Gradually add the sugars, beating until light and creamy.  Add eggs, one at a time, scraping sides after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, until almost mixed.  When dough is still streaky with dry ingredients, stir in chocolate chips and trail mix with a spoon.

Drop cookies onto cookie sheet and bake for 10-13 minutes, until edges are barely turning golden.  The center will seem to be undercooked, but this is important to retain chewiness.  DO NOT OVERBAKE!!!  Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Scratch Bars: No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars

My son, who has been sick for the last week and hasn’t eaten solid food for a good 5 days, devoured one of these bars yesterday.  He passed on ice cream for dinner last night (I only offered as a last resort to get some calories in the man, I promise it’s not a normal menu item!) but he loved these granola bars.  When I asked him if he wanted a granola bar, he headed toward the pantry, but I redirected him to the kitchen, telling him Mommy made them from scratch.  He then walked around the dining room eating his bar and calling it “Scratch!”  Hence the name Scratch Bars!

As I’ve mentioned, I gave up refined sugar for Lent.  The hardest part of this is right after a meal, when I crave a little something sweet.  So today I whipped up these granola bars to nibble on after dinner.  They are sweetened with honey, which I would prefer to be raw honey, but we live in a small town, so my selection is limited.  This combination of peanut butter and honey is so delicious.  It brings me back to childhood when my mom would make me peanut butter and honey sandwiches.

SCRATCH BARS

1/4 cup coconut oil or butter
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup natural peanut butter
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup brown rice crisp cereal
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, or dried fruit

Combine oats, brown rice cereal, and chocolate chips, raisins, or nuts in a large bowl.

Melt coconut oil or butter over medium heat, add honey and peanut butter and stir until peanut butter is melted.  Remove from heat and add vanilla, stirring to combine.

Pour peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients.  Stir until oats and cereal are coated.

Pour mixture into a 9 x9 pan and press down firmly.  Place in the freezer for 30 minutes to set.  Cut into bars and wrap individually or layer between sheets of wax paper.

These bars hold together best when stored in the refrigerator.

From the Cookbook: Hell’s Kitchen Peanut Butter

I should warn you, this isn’t your typical peanut butter, it’s more of a peanut spread with butter in it.  Whatever you call it, it’s delicious.  If you’ve never been to Minneapolis, you’re probably thinking this peanut butter comes from the television show with Chef Gordon Ramsay.  It’s not.  It is from an amazing restaurant in Minneapolis.  They have jars of this peanut butter on the table for all to enjoy, FOR FREE!  They should definitely be charging for every bite, it is that amazing!  You can buy it by the jar from their website.  Or you can make it yourself and avoid the shipping charges!  Peanuts, honey, brown sugar, butter.  What’s not to love about that?  It’s going to be amazing on the fresh wheat bread I plan to make tomorrow.

The flavor of this peanut butter comes from roasting your peanuts, and finding the perfect roast is key.  Here’s how mine looked after roasting for 17 minutes.  As you can see, the color is close to that of a brown crayon.  The skins are close to the crayon itself, and the nut inside is close to the color of the crayon wrapper.  This ended up being just a little too dark.  Next time I will probably roast for about 12 minutes.

Here’s how you make it:

HELL’S KITCHEN PEANUT BUTTER (adapted from Damn Good Food, 157 Recipes from Hell’s Kitchen by Mitch Omer and Ann Bauer)

3 cups salted Spanish peanuts, skin on

6 TBS honey

5 TBS light brown sugar

2 1/2 tsp kosher salt

7 TBS peanut oil

5 TBS unsalted butter, softened

Preheat oven to 375.  Roast peanuts on baking sheet on the center rack of the oven.  Roast for approximately 10-15 minutes, stirring the peanuts every 5 minutes.  When roasted to a chestnut color, remove from oven and cool to room temperature.

Place peanuts in a food processor and process on low until nuts are finely ground, about 30 seconds.  Put ground nuts into bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Add honey, brown sugar, and salt.  Mix on low speed until thickened and well mixed.

Add peanut oil and butter to the food processor. Pulse until completely emulsified.  Add butter mixture to peanut mixture and mix on low until well mixed.

Spoon into air-tight container.  This will keep  up to 4 weeks at room temperature.   Some separation can be expected after settling; simply stir the separated oil back in before serving.