Root Beer Float Cookies

 

This is what happens when someone super awesome has a birthday and mentions that he likes root beer…. a cookie is born!

Cookie Ingredients:

1 cup butter
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. root beer extract
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda

Root Beer OR Vanilla frosting:

1/2 cup butter
1.5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. root beer OR vanilla extract

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Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies

Taken straight from the lid of the Quaker® Oats container!

Ingredients:

1/2  cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4  cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2  cup granulated sugar
2  eggs
1  teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour
1  teaspoon baking soda
1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2  teaspoon salt (optional)
3  cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1  cup raisins

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Esalen Banana Coconut Bread

Straight from the Esalen Cookbook. Healthy, moist, sweet (but not too sweet) and yummy! Perfect straight out of the oven, just cool enough to handle with butter melted over it!

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons butter, softened
1.25 cups sucanat
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe banana
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
chopped walnuts for topping (or any other type of nut, if desired)

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Snickerdoodles

All right. Here they are. The world famous (infamous?) cookies… they’ve been called snickerdoodles, sugar cookies and even the “crack” cookies. These are the cookies that people eat so many of they literally make themselves sick. We take no responsibility for stomach aches. If you can’t control yourself, don’t make them!

These cookies have literally been passed down from generation to generation… with no actual instructions, just the ingredient list, the temperature and cooking time. We’ve included some helpful tips to get the softest, most addicting cookies possible!

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 3/4 cup white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

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Triple Chocolate Cinnamon Cookies

These are the kind of cookies that you eat and then you can’t stop talking about how good they are. They’re SO good. Really. It’s hard to explain how a cookie can be so good. Like, seriously. The only reason you’d regret trying them is because you can’t stop eating them. Because they’re SO good.

Originally seen on foodporndaily.com and then adapted from hotpolkadot.com.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup demerara sugar
2 eggs
2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups 60% chocolate chips
1 cup finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate

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Crispy Oatmeal Cookies (Ice Cream Topping)

Sometimes the best discoveries come out of the silliest mistakes! It turns out that if you leave the white flour out entirely and then bake as directed you get a really AMAZING ice cream topping. Like really good. Just scrape it off the tray and right on to your ice cream!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cube margarine
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
dash of salt
rasins, if desired

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Esalen Artichoke, Yam & Blue Cheese Scones

Here’s our declaration of the week: we’re going to cook our way through the Esalen Cookbook!

It’s not quite as ambitious as the Julia Child cookbook, but it should be a yummy challenge! So far we love everything we’ve tried from the cookbook and are excited to sample everything! Just a note: while these are healthy, mouth-watering recipes they are not generally quick; so we’ll make sure to mix it up with some less time-intense ideas!

We hope you enjoy our culinary journey, we sure will!!!


Ingredients:

1 large yellow onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium yams
8 ounces artichoke hearts in water
1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
pinch cayenne pepper
1 cup unsalted butter
2.5 cups Asiago, grated
1/2 pound crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons chopped sage


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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are a couple options when making these cookies… you can make them the healthy way or the good way! We’re all for healthy desserts, but this time the healthy option just doesn’t measure up to the white flour and sugar version! We made them with sucanat & whole wheat flour and then sugar & white flour. There was no contest. The sugar & white flour version has a much smoother consistency, though if you were only presented with the sucanat and whole wheat flour version you probably wouldn’t complain… they just can’t hold their own in a comparison.

Two warnings:

#1 These cookies are super addicting!
#2 We’ve made these cookies without the chocolate chips and had friends ask why we wasted our time not putting chocolate chips in!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar OR sucanat
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour OR whole wheat pastry flour OR a mixture of the two
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup+ Ghiradelli chocolate chips (optional)


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Butternut Squash Muffins


We found this recipe here, but made just a couple substitutions and upped the amount of spices.

Muffins Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup sugar OR sucanat
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 cup buttermilk (or make your own with 1 cup whole milk with 1 tablespoon vinegar)
1/2 cup mashed, roasted butternut squash (or pumpkin puree, if you prefer)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup yogurt


Topping Ingredients:

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup oats
1/4 cup brown sugar OR sucanat
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
1/4 cup melted butter

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Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients:

3 cups flour (we used 1/2 unbleached all-purpose & 1/2 whole wheat pastry)
2 tablespoons non-aluminum baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter — frozen and grated
1 cup buttermilk
(we made our own by adding 1 tablespoon vinegar to 1 cup of whole milk)
melted butter or buttermilk for brushing on the tops

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