Chewy Chocolate Coconut Cookies

Hello there.  It’s been awhile. I’ve typed those words too many times into a blog post, and yet, there they are again.  It’s been several months since I’ve been blogging regularly.  Honestly, I just haven’t felt like blogging, or even cooking or baking much for that matter. I’ve had some other things to attend to, and I decided I wasn’t going to blog if I wasn’t enjoying it. Sharing food should include some element of excitement, of passion, of anticipation for the other person to experience the enjoyment from it that you yourself found in the first place. I wasn’t feeling those things about food or blogging for awhile, so I took a break.

My inspiration seems to be seeping back slowly, and today I bring you a humble recipe.  We’re in the thick of it right now in New England, that January stretch of desperately cold temperatures, not enough sunshine, no holidays, and no mercy. I needed some comfort.

I almost made macaroons, dipped in dark chocolate, then at the last minute I came to terms with the fact that I was really craving a cookie with some substance. Some density, weight and measure. Macaroons are lovely but they don’t warm my soul on a day with a high of 13. Degrees. Fahrenheit. That’s right, folks.

So my macaroon turned into a dense, fudgy, cocoa-flavored cookie with a healthy dose of shredded coconut folded into the batter. Since January is not really the time when I want to go for extra-rich treats (except on my birthday, of course), I health-ified this recipe with oats and ground flax. I often try to do this to cookie recipes. Then I can feel completely justified when eating them for breakfast. These actually turned out tasting like chocolate cake batter. Imagine: cake batter for breakfast! I say yes.

Chewy Chocolate Coconut Cookies

Vegan

Makes 20 cookies

Prep time: 15 minutes/Bake time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup oats

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp. soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup coconut oil (or neutral-tasting oil, like grapeseed or canola)

3/4 cup sugar*

1 Tablespoon flax meal

3 Tablespoons warm water

3/4 cup almond milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix together flax meal and water in a small cup. Set aside so it can gel- this is your “egg”.

Combine oats, flour, cocoa, soda, and salt in a large bowl.

In a smaller bowl, mix together oil, sugar, milk, and vanilla. Add in your flax egg and stir until everything is incorporated.

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until combined.

Fold in your coconut.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake for 15 minutes. These cookies will still seem soft when you take them out of the oven, and will retain a chewy texture. I like them, as I enjoy most cookies, straight out of the freezer.

Adapted from Betty Crocker

* I decreased the amount of sugar in this recipe because I ended up using sweetened coconut. Normally I would use unsweetened coconut, and would increase the sugar to 1 cup.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Two years ago, my family abandoned the tradition of eating turkey for Thanksgiving.  We were having a rare family-reunion type holiday, spending it with a bunch of relatives we’d never spent holidays with and who live far away.  We decided to do something different and cooked up a whole sea bass as the main event of our meal.  We’re not a family of big meat-eaters.  I grew up eating tofu stir-fry slightly more often than spaghetti and meatballs.

Since that Thanksgiving, we haven’t gone back to eating turkey.  Last year was fish again, and this year was a rich seafood chowder with a pureed butternut squash base.  We also had about a pound of venison, sourced by a neighbor who hunts on my parents’ property, that we cooked up as well.  I made this stuffed squash as something of a rival to the animal protein options, although truth be told I had  little bit of everything.

The squash:

Preheat the oven to 375. Simply wash the acorn squash, slice off the stem and opposite end, and slice in half (either with or against the ridges is fine).  Scoop out the seeds and coat the flesh with olive oil.  Place the halves on an oiled baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes.   I made three whole squash for seven people and we had plenty of leftovers.

The stuffing:

Choose your favorite grain (I actually used a blend of quinoa, wild rice, and amaranth).  Pour about three tablespoons of olive oil into a saucepan and sautee a few leeks on low heat for about ten minutes.  Add a few heads of garlic along with salt, pepper, fresh thyme and sage. After about a minute or two, add 1 1/2- 2 cups of your grain and the appropriate amount of  stock.  Usually it’s a 2:1 ratio when cooking grains, liquid to grain.  Stir completely and allow to simmer uncovered on low to medium heat for about twenty minutes, stirring every so often.  Cook until all of the liquid has been absorbed.

To assemble:

Place a few spoonfuls of stuffing into the squash halves, sprinkle with sesame seeds and return to the oven for 10-15 more minutes until the squash is easy to poke into with a knife.  Enjoy them while they’re hot! I like to top mine with a little butter.