Organic Whole Wheat Christmas Cookies Part 2

Repeat from post 1:

I am in the middle of a giant, week long Christmas cookie extravaganza. I made all the cookies with organics products - evaporated cane juice sugar, organic brown sugars, organic eggs, Celtic sea salt, organic baking powder and soda, organic cocoa, agave nectar (in place of corn syrup), absolutely everything except for the chocolate chips. I am not to the point of using carob chips yet for chocolate chips (they are too expensive, $5 a bag!), so I went with Ghirardelli chocolate chips.

The part that I am most excited about is that I used whole wheat pastry flour in all of the cookies. And let me tell you, the results are amazing! No one would every know they are whole wheat cookies unless you told them. My taste testers said they felt the cookie had a slightly heartier taste, but that it a good thing. In all the recipes I used half whole wheat flour and half organic all-purpose flour. If I would have been making them only for my family, I would have used all whole wheat flour, but I planned on giving some away, and serving them to company, and I didn't want to risk any comments.

I have a lot of recipes to share, so I will do it in multiple posts. My goal this year was to make all sorts of different cookies that I had never made before. Every year I make the same cookies and this year I wanted to change things up.

WHOLE WHEAT COOKIES NOTE: I found that I needed to cook the cookies longer than I normally would if I only used regular flour. Usually I am at the low end of the time bracket. With whole wheat cookies, I was at the high end of the bracket. Wheat makes a darker cookie too so it can be hard to tell when they are done. Use your best judgement. It worked every time for me.

Also, whenever you see a -------, this means to mix the batter.

George W. Bush's Cowboy Cookies

This is one of my son's favorite cookies I made this year.

3/4 cup butter

------------------(Mix together)

3/4 sugar
3/4 brown sugar

--------------------(Mix together)

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda

--------------------(Mix together)

2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

--------------------(Mix together)

1 1/2 cups flour

--------------------(Mix together)

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

-------------------(Mix together)

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped toasted pecans

350 degrees for 13 minutes. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Cherry Rum Biscotti

1 1/4 cups dried tart red cherries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup spiced rum
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In a saucepan, combine cherries and rum. Bring to simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 minutes. Pat dry cherries with a paper towel.

1/2 cup butter

--------------(Mix together)

1 cup sugar
1 tbls baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

-------------(Mix together)

3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla

-------------(Mix together)

3 1/4 cups flour

-------------(Mix together)

3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Divide dough in thirds. Shape each portion into a 9 inch long loaf. Flatten each loaf to a 2-1/2 inch thickness. The loaves should be 3 inches apart on the cookie sheets.

This dough is thick! I broke a spatula just trying to work with it.

350 degrees, on parchment paper on a large cookie sheet, 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Biscotti in the oven

Cool completely on wire rack, about 1 hour. Then take a very sharp serrated knife and cut diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices. Bake 10 minutes, turn slices over and bake another 10-15 minutes to dry the cookie out. Cool on a cooling rack.

Rum Icing

1 1/2 cups sifted powder sugar and 1 tablespoon rum.  Add enough additional rum to make a drizzling consistency. Drizzle on cooled cookies.

They turned out excellent! They are the perfect cookie for coffee.

Organic Whole Wheat Christmas Cookies Part 1