Whole Wheat Organic Christmas Cookies Part 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.

Praline Topped Brown Sugar Slices

All of the recipes are excellent, but this is the best so far.

Cookie

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

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

1 egg

2 tablespoons Half & Half

1.5 tsp vanilla

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

3 cups flour

.5 tsp baking powder

.25 tsp baking soda

.25 tsp salt

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

2/3 cup finely chopped pecans

Roll into 8.5 inch long logs. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1-2 hours until firm.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Ungreased cookie sheets. Cut logs into 1/4 inch slices. Bake 9 minutes. Cool completely on cooling rack.

Topping

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup half and half

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cups finely chopped pecans

Heat brown sugar, butter and half & half in a saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. When it starts to boil, leave it cook WITHOUT stirring for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add in powdered sugar and pecans. Cover cookies immediately with topping. You will need to be very fast. The topping hardens quickly. I recruited help to go as fast as possible and it still hardened on us. So grab a friend and move fast!

Let cool before packing away. Use wax paper between layers in the container you use.

 Starbucks Mocha Brownie Cookies

If you love coffee, these cookies are amazing! The coffee is so strong and they fill the void that has been left by my broken espresso machine.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Ungreased cookie sheets.

1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
3 packets instant Starbucks coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

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

2 eggs

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

Combine separately
2.5 cups flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Gradually add this mixture to the butter mixture.

Add 1.5 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Bake 9-11 minutes. Cool 3 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.


Chocolate Fudge Crackles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Ungreased cookie sheets.

1 cup butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup agave nectar

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

2 egg yolks (save egg whites)

1.5 tsp vanilla

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

1.5 cups flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/4 tsp baking soda

Combine all ingredients. Shape into 1-inch balls with floured hands.

Roll balls in the remaining egg whites.

Then roll in 1 cup pecans that are chopped and toasted

Bake 10-12 minutes. Let stand on cookie sheets for 1 minute and then transfer to cooling rack.