My Way, for United Way

My mom's work does a lot of fundraising. I think there's at least one event for the Red Cross each year, and I believe it's twice a year that my mom's office hosts a bakesale that benefits the local United Way. However often it is, anyways, I'm always one to get a flurry of emails from people in her building that know me pretty much as "Heather's daughter, the girl who bakes yummy healthy stuff", asking if I'd mind sending in a batch of cookies. Would I mind? Come on!

Of course, they know that whatever I send in will be healthy(ish), delicious and most likely weird somehow! They've come to expect the alternative flours and grains in my baking, the assorted spices and veggies snuck in to everything under the sun and the sheer fact that you just can't get the "out-of-the-box" ideas I bake up from the store! My mom is fairly hesitant to send in "odd" bakes to the fundraisers, though, since she still believes (contradictory to what I hear) that people just don't want to buy them as much. Well, I know there are exceptions, but I've had enough experience doing bake sales from the time I was 7 years old at school that anything home made trumps a box of TimBits or a bag of Mr. Christies. They're good and all, but if I"m buying something from a bake sale, I think baking should have actually taken place. Even if it's from a box mix, the effort and time spent at home for the cause indicates a bit more than "I picked this up on my morning coffee run". Plus, baking for the events lets you play - even if it's just adding chocolate chips to a muffin mix or grating a bit of orange zest into a brownie batter, you get to make the day your way.

So that's precisely what I did. I'm not about to totally rock the boat with my offerings, since sales were the ultimate goal here, but I can jazz things up with the best of them! You may recognize the chocolate chipper recipe - possibly from a certain recipe site - but I still took it upon me to play a bit with the ingredients. Are they good for you? Well, the dark chocolate is... and they are whole-grain... and I'm sure you could make a case that the eggs and butter are part of the whole food pyramid...

"My Way" Chewy Choccy Chippers

Makes 24

2/3 cup unsalted butter

1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp Kosher salt
1 cup dark brown (or Demerara if you have it) sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 3/4 cups bittersweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325F, line 4 baking sheets with parchment.
2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Continue cooking over medium heat until it just begins to brown and smell nutty. Remove immediately from heat and pour into a large mixing bowl, set aside to cool slightly.
3. Meanwhile in another bowl, whisk together flours, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
4. To the butter in the mixing bowl, add sugars and vanilla, beating until smooth and just barely warm.
5. Add egg and egg yolk and beat in throroughly.
6. Add dry mixture all at once and blend in thoroughly but gently, then fold in the chocolate chips.
7. Bake 2 sheets at a time for 16 minutes each, rotating the pans after 8 minutes.
8. Allow cookies to cool completely on the sheets.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 238.5
Total Fat: 12.3 g
Cholesterol: 31.0 mg
Sodium: 45.6 mg
Total Carbs: 36.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.3 g
Protein: 2.7 g

These pumpkin cookies may not be as familiar, but I did use a recipe from the PPK's Isa Moskowitz as a base and ran far (far!) away with it.

"Pump" Up the Autumn Cookies
Makes about 35
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1/4 cup hot water
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup Kamut flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
pinch black pepper
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup pureed pumpkin
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp maple extract (optional)
1 1/3 cups Kamut flakes
2 tbsp whole flaxseed
1 cup diced dates

1. Preheat oven to 350F, line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together flaxseed and water. Let stand 10 minutes.
3. In another medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, salt and spices.
4. In a large bowl, beat brown sugar, oil, pumpkin, maple syrup and extracts.
5. Add flax mixture and beat in well.
6. Add dry ingredients, mixing well, then fold in Kamut flakes, flaxseed and dates.
7. Place 1 inch apart on the sheets and flatten the tops slightly (they don't spread much). Sprinkle with raw or maple sugar if desired.
8. Bake 16 minutes.
9. Cool on the sheets set on wire racks. Allow to "age" overnight for best flavour!

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 113.0

Total Fat: 4.7 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 22.4 mg

Total Carbs: 20.0 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.7 g

Protein: 1.5 g