Gumdrop Cookies #SundaySupper Kids!

Kids rule this #SundaySupper! 

Working with a gaggle and a half of children Monday to Friday, I like to think that I can (more or less) forecast their reactions when it comes to certain foods. Am I always right? Not a chance - Kheer, for example, won over 3/4 of the gang, but some of the younger ones I thought for sure would be fans of the warm, creamy concoction refused to eat more than a single bite. Then there was Jamaican “No-Beef” Patties, which no kid-lit cookbook author would dream of including in their next best-seller, yet have garnered more than one request for a repeat. I guess children are nothing if unpredictable!

That said, I have yet to meet a child of any age (including fully grown!) who would pass up a cookie. And honestly, what could be better than a cookie for this occasion? How about a tender, melt in your mouth, vegan cookie packed with jujubes that you can slice and bake at a moment's notice? Yup, these cookies get a meltaway-like texture thanks to vegan cream cheese, oat flour and coconut flour that is just sturdy enough to encapsulate chewy. chopped up jujubes. I made a double batch of these last year at Christmastime and stored it in the freezer (packed into wax-paper-lined paper towel tubes), periodically pushing out and slicing the perfect amount I needed for whatever occasion I was baking for. Just call them cookies for the 5-second-baby set! 

What do our kids (or the kids in your life) like to eat? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to check out the other offerings for this event hosted by Ellen of Family Around The Table! 

Appetizers

• Dueling Gyozas – Pork vs. Tofu by Food Lust People Love
• Kid-Approved Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips by Dessert Geek
• S’mores Cheeseball by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes

Desserts

• Aunt Deborah’s Snickerdoodles by Family Around The Table
• Chocolate Frozen Custard by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Easy Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream by Where Latin Meets Lagniappe
• Easy Nutella Mousse by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Fairy Bread Funfetti Milkshakes by The Crumby Cake
• Grape Juice Jigglers by Sunday Supper Movement
• Gumdrop Cookies by What Smells So Good?
• Homemade Cherry Popsicles by Pies and Plots
• Japanese Peach Boy Ice Cream by The Ninja Baker
• Mango Creamsicles by The Redhead Baker
• No-Cook Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream by Hardly A Goddess
• Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes by Grumpy’s Honeybunch
• S’mores Cheesecake by The Freshman Cook
• Turtle Poke Cake by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Whoopie Pies by Monica’s Table

Main Dish

• Broccoli Cheese Soup by Wholistic Woman
• Corn Dog Muffins by A Mind “Full” Mom
• Deep Dish Pizza Casserole by My World Simplified
• Grilled Pizza Flatbread Bar by Momma’s Meals
• How to Set Up a Hot Dog Bar by An Appealing Plan
• Lobster Gnocchi by Caroline’s Cooking
• Madison’s Shrimp Lasagna Rolls by Life Tastes Good
• Orecchiette Pasta with Creamy Alfredo Sauce by Pine Needles In My Salad
• Pasta Quattro Formaggi by La Bella Vita Cucina
• Slow Cooker Cauliflower Mac and Cheese by Dizzy Busy and Hungry
• Spaghetti and Meatball Casserole by Cooking with Carlee
• Snickerdoodle Cookie Cinnamon Pecan Ice Cream Sandwiches by The Chef Next Door
• Tuna Salad Grinders by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings

Snacks

• Caprese Quesadillas by Simple and Savory
• Maple Brown Sugar Granola Clusters by Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Waffle Parfait by Our Good Life

Join the #SundaySupper conversation on twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm ET. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out our Pinterest board.

Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement.

Double Chocolate Butter "Bean" Cream

Creamy, rich and thick frosting is the hallmark of many a great cake. My sister vehemently states that generously applying a coat of it will make any cake (box or scratch) worth eating - provided of course, that said frosting is chocolate. Frosting's nutritional benefits are not normally an issue - normally. However, the passion for the stuff some people I know (read: my little sister and most of my Home Ec classes) means I tend to pay a little bit of mind with regards to ingredients and attempt portion control! Obviously, frosting (or sweetened chocolate) are nowhere near "health food" material, and while there are some "low fat" and "sugar free" versions out there they are a little... iffy... on the flavour and texture front. 

Interestingly enough, while most of the kids I teach are good with anything sweet, there are a handful that are so anti-chocolate that whenever we do a cake-decorating lesson I make either my
French Vanilla Frosting or Super Vanilla Frosting just to avoid the argument. When I come home with leftover cake (but vanilla frosting), I'm whined at that there's no chocolate to put on it and the frosting (and cake) in question almost always turn into cake balls. One too many batches of cake balls later, I was re-organizing my Recipe Index and came across my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip - which was a major hit with both young and old. The recipe made me think that if I can make a bland bean like a cannellini taste like cookie dough, why couldn't I use them to stretch out frosting?

I knew I'd have to add the chocolatey flavour my sister loves so much, so along with the beans, I tossed in some rich cocoa powder, chocolate extract and couverture callets. The mixture was softer than "canned" frosting right out of the processor, but once chilled overnight it was 100% the perfect consistency for topping (and filling!) cupcakes as well as making the centres of the resulting Aquafaba Meringues sing!

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays

Scrambled Tofu Collard Wraps

I confess I am not a real "egg" person. I was never somebody who could sit down to a breakfast of toast and scrambled eggs in the morning, nor would I hanker for an Eggs Benedict when we'd go out for brunch. In general, I was (and guess, still am) very specific about my eggs - crispy, crusty bottom, ideally omelette or sunny-side up, and there had better be something else too. When I became allergic to egg yolk, I didn't mourn it too badly, since I hadn't eaten a "proper" egg in ages anyways.

I think it's because of my anti-egg mindset that I didn't even bother with the idea of scrambled tofu. When my friend dropped off a bunch of veggies to us in exchange for the fruits of my A Study in Apple Pie, I was mowing through all of them but the collard greens. I've never really cooked with them before, but knew they made pretty good wrappers for things. As fate would have it, I received an email the next day about breakfast wraps using tortillas layered with collard greens, bacon, red pepper and scrambled eggs. Well, I'm not super passionate about breakfast, but the idea of a dinnertime wrap appealed to me and for some reason it sparked a craving for something eggy - just not eggs.

Since I had a block of silken tofu in the pantry (love those Tetra-Paks), I started googling ways to use it like eggs. A couple hours of research and a dive into DIY Vegan later I had something I was willing to try out, and since then I've become a non-egg egg convert!

One of the key ingredients in the Savoury Egg Mixture is something called kala namak. It's a Himalayan sea salt that is naturally infused with sulfuric compounds (like the hot springs and sulfur pools in Western Canada and the US) and when used, adds a distinctive "cooked egg" flavour to whatever it's sprinkled on. It not only makes great tofu scrambles, but it also elevates less-than-ripe tomato slices and slices of cucumber too

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays

Adults-Only Chocolate Orange Sauce

As a "grown up", I've gotten used to the fact that some things I could get away with eating as a kid would raise more than a few eyebrows if I tried it now. Spoonfuls of Nutella and/or peanut butter out of the jar, frozen McDonalds french fries (don't know why my mom used to freeze them but they were so good), corn syrup on toast and tubes of raw cookie dough shared amongst my closest friend all come to mind - along with the reminder that there was a reason I topped 200 pounds in my early teen years. Moderation was preached at home, but when left to my own teenage devices it left the building entirely. 

One of the other goodies I used to be able to get regularly at the local Tim Hortons was cups of chocolate milk - we're talking the fountain-drink cups here, with a Large running at 24oz of cold, rich tasting, sweet dairy. With the evolution of the menu (and inevitable price increases for "real" food and skilled labour), the fountain-style chocolate milk disappeared and was replaced with the cartons, just as "freshly made" doughnuts transformed into pre-baked, frozen pucks that are reheated and glazed on site. While carton-style chocolate milk wasn't the worst thing in the world (and was certainly better than Quik powder), it didn't quit have the same indulgent feel going for it. When I stopped being able to drink "regular" milk, I started experimenting with a few variations of chocolate pastes, syrups and sauces added to various non-dairy milks - partially to cover up any off flavours and/or textures (looking at you, off-label soy milk and most rice milks) and partially to see if I could get anything to taste similar to what I remembered, dairy or non. 

Luckily, adulthood brought with it the freedom to experiment with extra flavour options, and I took a leaf out of my mom's "chocolate-orange love" book when I came up with this beauty. The first and foremost flavour in this just-thick-enough syrup is definitely bittersweet chocolate - so much so that the milk chocoholics out there will probably shy away from licking the spoon (more for us!). However, a lingering, ever-so-subtle whisper of orange creeps in afterwards thanks to a hint of Grand Marnier. It's not cooked out, hence the "adults only" moniker, but it is definitely a throwback to after-school snacks as a kid. The syrup is just thick enough to make for an artistic drizzle over cake, ice cream or fruit, but my personal favourite is to add a shot to a (cashew milk) caffe latte for a wicked twist on a hot mocha. I've yet to test it out on the heavier drinkers here making cocktails though - let me know what your favourite would be!

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays

Peppery Strawbarb Blossom Jam Toast Topper #69

Strawberry and rhubarb jam has, I believe, become my new favourite flavour of Toast Topper. I'm not an overly sweet person when it comes to fruit (I love tart cherries and raspberries, for example), especially in the summer when it's a billion degrees out. Luckily, our garden is bursting with rhubarb, which tempers the saccharine nature of the perfect local berries finally making it to market. 

Of course, it is jam we're talking about, and when I make preserves for holiday gift giving, the sugar does play a certain role in that respect. Most pectin demands sugar to work, and while I'm always playing with low-sugar options like Pomona's and Ball's, but sometimes having the convenience of perfectly proportioned ingredients trumps fancy-dancy fine tooling. Since I can a lot of things at a time to conserve energy (water bath canners take forever to heat up!), by jam #4 I'm getting ready to call it a day. Not willing to toss the ingredients into the freezer for another day, thereby admitting defeat, I pulled out one of my fail-safe jamming secrets when time is short - sugar with pectin already added and mixed in. Using the bag of that set up a ton of strawberries and rhubarb, and thanks to the natural thickening properties of rhubarb, the mix gelled more than the directions say it will (meaning less sugar per serving!). 

Since it still seemed a bit too sweet for my taste, and mom loves the combination of strawberries and black pepper, I chopped up a handful of my beautiful, zippy homegrown nasturtium blossoms and tossed them in with a dash of white pepper for interest! The floral peppery-ness really amps up the fresh flavours of the berries, and is definitely something I will continue to do!

Are you a fan of savoury and sweet combinations (like pepper and strawberries)?

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays