Whole Wheat Pastry Chocolate Chip Cookies

While perusing Amazon they suggested a cookbook called Kitchen Revelry Cookbook
I looked for more information and found out it was by actress, Ali Larter.

On her website I found this Whole Wheat Cookie Recipe
I loved the idea of a Whole Wheat cookie. However, I find whole wheat to be too heavy. Often for "Whole wheat" I substitute Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. So, in the ingredients I made that substitution. The result is some pretty tasty cookies!!  I really love them! They are less SWEET than regular cookies and are a tiny bit chewy. I hope you make these today and share them with someone you love!

ORGANIC WHOLE WHEAT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE -adapted from Good to the Grain 

Ingredients for cookies:

3 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt

8 oz. cold Unsalted Butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 cup Dark Brown Sugar

1 cup Sugar

2 Eggs

2 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extra

8 oz. (2 bars) Organic Semi-Sweet Chocolate, roughly chopped

1 cup Organic Walnuts, ground

Flaked Sea Salt, to taste

Directions for cookies:

Preheat oven to 350F, then line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Sift the Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, and Kosher Salt into a large bowl - whole grains can be very heavy, and sifting will add airiness to the mixture and, ultimately, lightness to the cookies.  

In a standing mixer on a low speed, mix the Butter and Sugars until blended, then add Eggs one at a time until fully combined.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Add the Vanilla, and the Flour mixture, and blend on a low speed until the flour is barely combined - roughly 30 seconds.  

Add the Chocolate and the Walnuts, and mix on a low-speed until they are combined throughout the dough.  Remove the dough onto a clean workspace and mix with your hands until everything is evenly distributed.  

Scoop 3-tbls. mounds of the dough onto the cookie sheets, 6 mounds per sheet, leaving three inches between each ball.  Bake for 16 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through.  Remove the cookies from the oven and transfer them to the counter, leaving them on the parchment paper to cool.  Re-line the baking sheets with parchment paper, and repeat with remaining dough. 

These cookies are delectable straight out of the oven, or up to 3 days later!  If you’d like to prep the dough in advance, make sure to scoop your cookie balls before placing in the refrigerator, as cold dough can be very difficult to scoop.  Refrigerated dough will keep for about a week.

Total Cooking Time: 45 mins.

Serves: 20 cookies

Two sticks of cold, unsalted butter cut up. 

Butter, and Dark Brown sugar blended together.

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, Baking Soda and salt after sifting. (Sifting also helps make these cookies lighter)

Cookie dough with the ground Walnuts and Dark Chocolate Chips mixed in. Yum!

Mac and Cheese with Quinoa Noodles!

My friend posted a comment on Facebook the other day about making pesto for her son. She mentioned how she put this pesto over Quinoa Pasta. Quinoa Pasta??? I never knew there was such a thing! I love Quinoa and I have been looking for a healthier version of pasta. (my waist line....don't get me started....) so I thought I would like to try this out. I found some at Lucky's and cooked it right up. Quinoa Pasta

It LOOKED good! I liked how the noodles were larger than regular elbow macaroni. Now what to do with it? Should I make a Spinach Pesto? I swear I saw a recipe for that somewhere but couldn't for the life of me remember in which cookbook I saw it. I thought the last time I tried homemade Mac and Cheese I didn't use enough cheese and I wanted to try it again. ALSO, I had just bought Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. I knew you had to add flour to make it so I wondered, "Can I use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour? Would this further my desire to eat less flour and gluten?" Heck! Let's give it a try. I didn't have time to look up a recipe and my daughter was watching cartoons on the computer so I decided to wing it!! Here's what I did….

To make the pasta, I followed the directions on the box but used 1/2 water, and 1/2 chicken broth. (for more flavor) To make the cheese I threw a handful of shredded Mozarella (maybe 1/2 a cup), 1/2 cup of milk and then shredded maybe 1/4 cup of Muester cheese on top. As the cheese melted, I added in two tablespoons of the Whole Wheat Pastry Flour.

After everything was melted, I tossed in the pasta and stirred till all the noodles were covered. As a YUMMY last mintue touch I decided to cook up some Uncured Natural Bacon as garnish on top.

Now the real test! Give it to the 3 year old! Would she like the Quino Noodles? Would she like the cheese sauce? Would she eat it? The answer is YES! YES! and YES!

Lily liked it so much she ate it right up. She wouldn't even look at me for the picture. At one point she put her arm protectively around her bowl lest I try and take it from her.

The amazing news is, my stepson, Calvin came home from school. He was looking at my portion that I had set aside to take to work. I saw that he was curious. I asked if he wanted some? He said, "Yes." So, I got out my pots and started all over again. :)